The Morning After - A Rough Morning - Getting The Message - The Expedition - Betrayed - Unicorn Hunting - The Rescuer - Allies? - Hunted! - Hiding - Trapped - Salazari - Fade To Black - Jayron -
~oOo~
After the excitement and intrigue of Wildday afternoon, the following day begins quietly for Pavel, Kiki and Eren. All three had made it back to their dormitories before curfew - only just and in considerable discomfort, in Pavel's case - and had slept reasonably soundly. It being Godday, each of the young apprentices dutifully attends church in the morning, which gives them ample opportunity to ponder the events of the previous day.
~~
Pavel's thoughts are mostly occupied with the revelation that he'd had in the Library, but when he catches Meredith staring at him, a deep frown on her face, he can't help wondering whether Carrick has spoken to her about the vagrant in the marshes. Then he idly wonders what his sponsor was doing at the glassmakers yesterday morning and goes on to ponder why he should have any interest in the message that Pavel had been delivering. Shaking his head vigorously to clear it of all this unfamiliar musing, he lets the droning of the liturgist wash over him and returns to pondering his new-found interest in studying.
No point hanging around, he thinks. After the service, Pavel follows Carrick to his study and knocks on the door.
The master is plainly surprised to see him, but is even more surprised by what Pavel has to say. "I want to learn to draw. And I'd like to learn about runes and symbols." Pavel says, matter-of-factly.
"Learn to draw?" Carrick echoes, evidently bemused by this request. "Runes and symbols? Hells bells, boy what are you talking about? And why are you bothering me with it? Isn't this something you should be asking your tutor? My last attempt to take an active part in your education didn't exactly turn out too well..."
Pavel can't really decide how to respond to this, so he says nothing.
"Anyway, you can forget about that nonsense for the moment," Carrick continues. "I have another bone to pick with you. Come on, lad - we have an appointment."
The adept rises to his feet and strides out from behind his desk. He is about to grab Pavel by the arm, but stops himself abruptly and steps back looking rather uncomfortable. Chewing his lip, he frowns at the apprentice.
"Listen," he says, at length. "I know I haven't been a very... sympathetic sponsor, but..." He trails off, scowling. "That is," he starts again, "I don't want to be heavy-handed about this, but..." He stops again, starting to go red in the face. "Oh, curse it!"
"Look," he tells Pavel, leaning forward and speaking in a whisper. "The thing that you wouldn't tell me yesterday - well, I talked to Meredith and what she told me gave me serious cause for concern. So we are going to have a conversation on that topic, you and I, whether you like it or not. And since you appear to have a misguided sense of loyalty in this matter, I'm going to make things nice and easy for you. So why don't we go to Glassmakers right now, so that you can tell Bastian and I what we need to know..."
He straightens up and gestures towards the door.
"Well?" he asks. "Are you coming or not? Pavel follows; he canīt bring himself to reply though.
~~
Eren's mind is abuzz with excitement, running over the murals that she and Kiki had found and trying to decide what she should do next. The possible implications of the mural room, with its apparent focus upon historical collaborations between the schools, are almost too exciting to contemplate. One thing was certain: she needed to find out more - and that reminded her of the unique insight that she'd gained into the nature and organisation of the Imperial Library. And that reminded her about her orb and the lines of research that Master Atlan had suggested. But weren't she and Kiki supposed to be reporting back to Salazari this afternoon? And then there was the homework that she was supposed to have completed by tomorrow. So much to think about! So much to do! And so little time...
The discourse on "The Flaw of Embellishment" was something to which Eren knew she should have paid attention, as this was something she knew the Church Scribes had discussed with her Father more than once. But her head had been far too much abuzz to track the subtleties of the argument. Something about using calligraphy to illustrate the difference between adornment and embellishment, and she thought she could garble a couple of pertinent phrases on the topic if she needed to do so.
The discourse had also, of course, dragged on far too long. By the time the rest of the service was finished Eren's stomach was predictably complaining of neglect. When she stood up the rest of her body complained of the aches and pains it had picked up from the hike and the evening's scrambling around.
"I know we aren't supposed to be considering the needs of the body in church" Eren mused as the congregation slowly shuffled out of the musty confines, "but surely nobody could blame me today, considering all that I did yesterday!" She rolled her shoulders, trying to work them loose, and almost knocked over Goody Newmill, the paper seller's wife. After apologies and glares and contrite shuffling, Eren finally reached the daylight and freedom.
"Well, temporary freedom" she admitted to herself. She looked longingly at the baker's carts, but knew she didn't have the coin to spare, nor really the time "If I don't get at least _started_ on the homework I'm done for." she reminded herself "I'd better get onto it first thing, before I go see Master Salazar."
A few steps later she amended her plan "Well, something to eat would help to settle my mind and make me more productive. I'm sure it is not mid-day dinner time yet, but maybe Agatha will let me take mine early, to my room, so that I can eat while I work."
Fortunately for Eren, Agatha is in an indulgent mood today. One of the youngest and most junior members of the College kitchen staff, she can usually be relied upon for the occasional favour - provided that none of the senior servants are on hand to voice their disapproval.
"Bunta's got the day off on account o' her daughter gettin' married," the kitchen maid explains, with a grin. "Which is a blessed relief f'rall of us, I can tell you! Don't you dare tell 'er I said so, mind! Now, let's see what we have left from last night..."
Some time later, having spent rather more time than she'd have liked chatting with Agatha, Eren is heading back to her room with an impressive array of leftovers wrapped up in a teatowel ("I daresn't give you none o' the crockery," Agatha had apologised. "Bunta would 'ave my guts for garters if she found out.") when she feels the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. This is the only warning that she has before something wraps itself tightly round her ankles, threatening to send her sprawling onto the unyielding stone floor...
~~
Kiki is also thinking about the murals and their appointment with Salazari, but she's mostly preoccupied with her recent failures when called upon to apply her artistic talents on behalf of her friends. First there had been Pavel's wave picture, which had defied all of her attempts to reproduce it, and then the shudder-inducing portal inscription that she and Eren had found yesterday evening. And she hadn't even been given the chance to try sketching the murals, thanks to the interruptions from Imogen and Pavel. Thinking about Imogen gives her pause. Why had that girl been following them? And how had she managed to slip away before they even noticed that she was gone?
Kiki racked her brain over the two failed paintings. What was she missing! She seldom had problems with doing fast accurate work. And people often commented on how realistic her work was too. So it was not just her opinion of herself getting in the way.
Only belatedly does Kiki recall that she's supposed be going on an expedition with Master Stockfish later in the week, a 'reward' that she now anticipates with rather mixed feelings, thanks to the rather implausible warnings about the master that Eren had passed on yesterday morning. Precisely why her friend credited the ravings of a vagabond she'd met in the swamp, the young limner couldn't imagine, but her friend had been obviously distressed, which made it hard to just ignore. Still, Stockfish had to get permission from her school's Master of Tutors first, and Kiki was certain that Master Adhuc he wouldn't dream of putting her in danger...
The Portal was just to icky to think about for now so Kiki decides to head back to her small studio and look again at her failed attempt of the wave painting. As she walked she did not pay much attention to her surrounding as her mind churned over the problem.
Once in her room she takes out her failed attempt of the wave picture and studies it again intently. Yes, the detail was there. It looked like waves on the sea. But still something was missing... Frustratingly the leap of imagination dose not come to her. She can almost taste the shape of it but remains vague.
Kiki sniffs and unthinkingly wipes her nose on her sleeve where it joins the paint stains. Sighing she takes her broom from its corners and starts to sweep. Her room is already clean so she is soon sweeping the corridor in the meditation of simple labour.
"I say, are you Kiki?"
The voice surprises her, shaking her out of her reverie. She looks up from her sweeping to see a red-faced boy in Imperial robes.
He frowns, gesturing at his nose. "What's that on your... Oh, never mind. I'm s'posed to find some girl called Kik and take her back to Master Stockfish. Is that you?"
~oOo~
When Eren sense something is wrong she tries to prepare herself, but when it is her legs restrained she realizes stopping her substantial momentum is going to be hard. Fortunately staff sparing partners have been trying for years to exploit this same weakness with trips, so she has some clue of how to react. All the same she feels herself teetering... and then a well-judged shove dashes her hopes of staying on her feet.
Crashing heavily to the floor, she can't help crying out in pain as her not-inconsiderable frame impacts the stone flags. Although her hastily-outflung arms help to break her fall somewhat, the force of it is sufficient to fling her head forward, cracking painfully into the floor. Winded and more than a little dazed, she hears the cackling laughter of her assailant, moving past and then away from her down the corridor. By the time she has raised her head to look, there's nothing to see but a flicker of movement in the distance as the malefactor heads off down a side passage.
Gasping with pain, Eren climbs gingerly to her feet. No obviously broken bones, fortunately, but she's badly bruised and her head is pounding...
Stifling sobs and blinking away tears she gathers up the dropped food, hoping nobody sees her right now. If she can just get it together and limp back to her room without being seen then she can cry in private, and eating will help things feel not quite so bad.
She wonders briefly if she should have someone look at her injuries, but no, she couldn't tell anyone what happened, they'd think she was making up stories to cover up how clumsy she is.
As she nears her room, however, Eren hears the sound of voices up ahead and hesitates, unwilling to let any of her peers see her in this state. While trying to decide whether to wait or find somewhere else, she overhears a phrase that makes gives her goosebumps and makes her listen hard, heart beating in her chest. The two - unfamiliar and unmistakably adult male - voices seem to be coming from within her room.
"Are you sure this is the girl's cell?" one voice asks, speaking softly but urgently. "I thought you said she was heading this way?"
"Yeah, this is definitely the right one," says a second, gruffer voice. "I told you: the lad pointed it out for us and said she was bound to be comin' back 'ere after the service. My spotter Dev eyeballed 'er leavin' the church and sent a runner. That's why we're 'ere. So jus' be patient, eh? The lass'll show..."
~~
It takes a few seconds for the meaning of all this to penetrate the existing fog of self-pity. Then Eren feels her blood run cold, and her thoughts scatter to possibilities of why and who and what next?
She realizes that the "who" might help with the other questions, and it happens to be the one thing that maybe she can narrow down the most quickly. She feels a plan to find out more about them forming in the back of her mind, but first things first.
The speech had not sounded refined, but she replays it in her mind to see if she can gather any further information out of it. She knows that it is not so hard to tell a lot about someone in Syran from their clothes, but speech isn't so much harder. And she certainly heard people from many parts of the city at the plays in her younger days, she used to love all the variety in the audience. Now to put it all together if she can....
The speech patterns of both men are familiar and certainly aren't foreign or obviously upper class, but they are quite different. One sounds stereotypically lower class, but the other is more cultured, the vowel sounds more controlled and the consonants more distinct. However, this doesn't really tell her much and certainly doesn't help her to identify who they are or what they intend. She decides that she can live without knowing for the time being...
Eren quickly plots out a route to the infirmary that does not go past her room, and does her best to quietly turn and walk away down the corridor, although not without the occasional backwards glance.
Fortunately no-one seems to be following her. Before she reaches the infirmary, however, she sees another student coming towards her along the corridor: Vey. He immediately recognises her and - not for the first time - Eren feels the warmth of his brilliant smile as an almost physical sensation. When he gets close enough to see that she is hurt, however, the look of sincere concern that replaces the smile immediately makes her burst into tears. With two quick strides, he is beside her, a comforting arm around her shoulder.
"By all the saints Eren!" he exclaims. "Whatever happened to you? No, no: don't try to talk," he adds, as she tries in vain to speak through her sobs. "You just lean on me and I'll take you straight to matron..."
At the infirmary, with matron tut-tutting and fussing over her various injuries, Eren at last manages to stop the sobbing. Vey is hovering nearby, looking anxious...
Eren wipes her eyes one more time, then forces herself to focus on the situation at hand instead of her hurts.
Oh how much she wishes she could get someone else to just take care of all of this! But she can't, she has to take care of herself, and without making this more of a mess than it already is. She has to go and deal with those men. Then she realizes that is not logical, she has two resources right here, Matron and Vey. She doesn't know how much she can rely on them, or how much she can ask of them, but surely its better to work with them than on her own. She just needs to plan this out to ask little of them, but get the most from that.
Finally she says slowly "Someone pushed me down. I felt like something wrapped my ankles, but I'm not sure. But it wasn't just me being clumsy as usual, I was pushed. Then when I approached my room I heard two men talking near my room. I was worried, I mean," she suddenly realizes that her listeners might laugh if she says she was worried about being trapped alone with the men, since what man would want to take advantage of her? "that is, I didn't want to deal with anything else. I don't know what they were there for, but I was hurt and didn't want to talk to anyone, so I decided maybe I should come and get looked at."
There, at least Matron knows what has been going on. If anything else happens, someone at the college knows about it.
By the time Eren has finished, Matron's face has turned bright red, her brows knitted in a deep frown. Eren has never seen her so angry.
"If I catch the... the... the filthy little miscreant that was responsible for this," she fumes. "They'll wish they'd never been born. Pranks and japes are one thing, but it sounds like this was just plain vicious. You're very lucky that you weren't more seriously hurt, my girl. Rest assured, I'll take this to the headmaster. Perhaps he can find who was responsible and make sure that they never, ever do it again."
Fussing over Eren's bandaged head, she adds: "But what was that you were saying about hearing someone in your room? Are you sure you weren't mistaken? You had just taken a nasty bang to the head..."
Apparently a malicious student prank is something that fits comfortably into Matron's world-view, but the notion of outsiders daring to invade the apprentices' dormitory is unthinkable.
"Vey, could I ask a favor?," Eren says. "I'd love to have my staff to lean on while I hobble around today, but I don't want to go back to my room alone right now. Would you be willing to go and get it for me? It should be right behind my door. If the men are still there, you can tell them I'm in the infirmary. If they want to come and see me here I think that would be alright, would it Matron? I've got some studying to do, but probably best to deal with this first." One last idea occurs to her, but could she? Before she can talk herself out of it she quickly mumbles: "Oh, and if you have any work to do, you could always join me in the library if you wanted and weren't busy and stuff."
Vey looks rather nervous, but he nods. "No trouble at all. I'll go fetch your staff and then I'll take you to the library."
Matron tells him to be careful and to come straight back if there is someone waiting in Eren's room, but it's clear that she still doesn't really credit the girl's story. The boy nods and strides off immediately, leaving Eren feeling a little awkward as matron favours her with a raised eyebrow and a knowing smile.
"A good lad, that one," she observes, with a nod in Vey's direction. "Not like his daddy, when he was here. A bad lot he was, for all that he impressed his tutors. Odd that he produced such a... charming son. But listen to me gabbling," she chides herself. "Let me make you a nice cup of tea, petal. That'll put a spot of colour back in your cheeks..."
~~
Vey returns promptly with her staff.
"No sign of anyone in your room," he reports. "I... err. I guess they must have given up waiting for you," he adds. "Shall we head over to the library now?"
Eren winces, as she realizes how far her plan has gone off track. Matron is all fussed about the normal thing, someone pulling a trick on Eren, and not even believing about the men, and now it looks like Vey is thinking the same thing.
What can she salvage out of this? Well at least she has her staff now, and an escort, not that a young man would be considered an appropriate escort for a young woman in general, but under the circumstances she isn't going to complain, especially if she can coax some more of those cute smiles out of him.....
Eren makes an effort to sit up straight and look re-energized, then says "Matron, Vey, thank you both so much! I really do appreciate that some people will help out any student on a bad day. Vey, yes, I'd love to go to the library now--there at least it should be peaceful, I hope!"
Matron gives her a rather obvious wink and a smile of encouragement, while admonishing her to try to be more careful and to avoid any further excitement today. Vey, now looking a little uncomfortable, gestures towards the door and follows Eren out.
"Let's go this way," he suggests, leading her off the main corridor and down a narrow side passage. "We can take the shortcut through the garden quad and use the back door."
The garden quadrangle is a horticultural gem, nestling amongst the college buildings at the rear of the Library. Although modest in size, it is home to a wide variety of rare and unusual plant species, including several mature trees and numerous large shrubs, which are arranged in densely-populated raised beds separated by criss-crossing gravel paths. There are only three entrances, leading from the Library, the adepts' common room and a little-used side passage to the student dormitories. The latter is locked at dusk and the garden is officially off-limits to unattended apprentices at all times.
However, many older or bolder students discover that they can get away with the occasional brisk walk through the leafy and sweet-scented quadrangle during th day, provided they aren't tempted to linger. This route to the Library isn't really much of a shortcut, but Eren is happy to go along with Vey's suggestion, since it means they're less likely to bump into other students.
By the time that the downside of this apparent merit dawns on her, it's already too late. Her first inkling that something is wrong comes when she hears a curious two-tone whistle and realises that Vey is no longer walking beside her. Turning to look over her shoulder she sees him a few paces behind her, backing away slowly, his unsmiling face an unreadable - indeed, barely recognisable - mask. He's not even looking at her, she realises, but at something - or someone - up ahead.
Two figures detach themselves from the shadows of the shrubbery and begin moving purposefully towards her...
~oOo~
Carrick leads Pavel out of the Academy, through the streets of Savaran and across the bridge to Glassmakers, walking so quickly that Pavel occasionally finds himself trotting just to keep up. When they arrive at Perronele's workshop, the place seems to be deserted. This shouldn't be that surprising - almost everyone will have been at church this morning and Godday lunch is traditionally spent with one's family - but Carrick frowns when he finds the door open and no-one visible inside.
"Bastian?" he calls out. "Are you there?"
When there is no answer, Carrick enters the workshop and heads for the side-chamber where he had been speaking to Bastian the previous day. Throwing open the door, he gasps and then starts cursing under his breath. Following behind him, Pavel sees that the room is in complete disarray, the glass containers and lenses that had been so carefully arrayed on shelves now lying shattered on the benches and the floor. Carrick takes a couple of steps into the room, the glass crunching under his feet, but then turns at a noise from behind them: the sound of someone moaning.
They find the source of the sound behind one of the large grinding mechamisms, climbing unsteadily to his feet and holding his head. It's the burly owner of the workshop - and from the look of the dried blood that is caked in his hair, he's suffered a serious blow to the head.
"S'Blood, Perronele!" Carrick exclaims. "What in the Hells happened to you? And where's Bastian?"
The glassmaker squints at him. "Bastian?" he asks, sounding groggy. "Bastian? I... I... don't know. Pair o' bastards jumped me and one of them... well," he holds out his hand, which is covered in blood. "You can see for yourself. Bastian was in his room, far as I remember - you sayin' he's not there now?"
"Gone," Carrick confirms, looking grim. "And the room's a wreck. Who were these people, man? Did you get a good look at them?"
Perronele shakes his head, then winces. "Not really," he says, grimacing. "They were wearin' hoods and they'd floored me afore I knew what was happenin'. But I don't reckon they were your average ruffians," he adds. "I might not have seen their faces, but they weren't exactly dressed in rags, if you catch my drift. One had new boots, by the look of 'em - and I had a good look at 'em!" he notes, ruefully. "Leastways, afore they put my lights out..."
He belatedly notices Pavel. "Ho, what's this? Why, it's the lad from yesterday! What's he doin' here? Is he with you, Master Carrick?" The glassmaker's eyes go wide. "That blasted message! That's what this is all about, isn't it?"
Carrick nods. "I fear you're right, but..."
"You and your damned intrigues!" Perronele spits angrily. "I told you to keep me out of it! Nothing good comes of secrets!"
"Damn it, man!" Carrick responds angrily. "I never brought... this down on you! Now are you sure there's nothing else you can remember about these men who attacked you? Think, man! Bastian's life may depend on it"
Turning to Pavel, he snaps. "And you, lad - you can forget about your damned games now! A man's life is at stake! Tell me everything you can remember about this fellow you met in the marshes. Don't spare the details, even if you think they're irrelevant - I need to know who he is so that I can work out who might have taken Bastian!"
For once, Pavel goes along with his master's request. "Well, he knew my father," he begins immediately. In fact, as he begins to tell the story, Carrick can't help but notice that boy seems to be, at least momentarily, someone entirely different. Strangest of all is how he finishes his tale. "I think she was quite upset."
"Yes, I rather think she was," Carrick murmurs distractedly. He is silent for some time, his brow furrowed. "The tattoo on this fellows arm - you say it was a sword?"
The apprentice nods. Abruptly, Carrick turns and stalks back to Bastian's room. Pavel can hear him rummaging around for a few minutes, then he returns clutching a piece of paper, a bottle of ink and a stylus.
"You said earlier that you wanted to learn how to draw," the adept comments. "Why don't you start by drawing this sword tattoo for me?"
~~
Pavel seems to be quite content having a go at drawing. In fact, he seems immediately enthralled in the task. He's not having much success at first, so he asks if he might excuse himself for a few moments. In the latrine, he casts one of his school spells on himself, one to help him aid his master, of all things. Returning, he seems more concentrated but is still having difficulty. Eventually, he half-stands, his knee on the stool, and bends right over his work, bizarrely using both hands to draw.
By now, Carrick has realised that Pavel isn't about to be anything like quick so is helping clear up some of the mess. When he does check on Pavel, he finds he has only produced a number of points and lines which oddly seem to pass the points by. He is about to scold the boy but for once holds back: he seems so concentrated, who knows? Eventually, the boy stands back and reveals a quite passable drawing. The lines now seem to make sense as they have defined the shape of the object, something one might expect to see in an apprentice iconographer.
And the iconography is very clear to Carrick.
"You're absolutely sure that this was the symbol?" the adept asks quietly. Pavel nods. His drawing shows a sword surrounded by three eyes: one above the pommel and two one either side of the crossguard.
"Do you know what this is?" Carrick asks.
Pavel nods. Drawing the symbol seems to have had an unexpectedly profound effect, bringing all of his memories of the encounter in the swamp into sharper focus. When the fugitive showed them his tattoo, he now recalls, Eren had identified it as the emblem of the St Order of Arkat the Liberator. The fugitive had confirmed this and told them he'd been expelled from the order as a traitor. He relays this information to Carrick.
"Well, if he's managed to turn his own brethren against him," the adept comments. "And made an enemy of a secret cabal of black sorcerers, then I can hardly blame him for fleeing the city. Is there anything else that you forgot to tell me?" he adds, rather sharply.
"Actually, yes," Pavel admits. "He had another tattoo." He picks up the pen again. "It looked like this," he says, quickly sketching the triple-looped ropework pattern that the vagabond had shown him. "My father has this too," he adds. "That's why I believed him when he told me they were old comrades."
Carrick laughs out loud, which wasn't the reaction Pavel had been expecting.
"Is that what he said?" the adept asks. "Old comrades? Oh, that's rich! That's really rich! The devious bastard!"
Pavel looks confused. "What do you mean?"
"Well, clearly he wanted you to infer that he had some kind of relationship with your father. But the only kind of comradeship that this mark actually implies," Carrick tells him, pointing at the sketch. "Is the desperate comradeship of condemned men. It's a bondmark," he explains. "And the only variety of bondmark that you're ever likely to see in Syran."
Carrick tells him that bonded labour is a legal sanction, common thoughout Safelster, which is used as punishment for certain crimes - or even, in some cases, for defaulting on a debt. Its use has become increasingly rare in Syran, where it is seen as morally reprehensible, tantamount to slavery. In fact, only one agency in the city has made regular use of bonded labourers in the recent past - and this tattoo is the bondmark that they use.
"So our fugitive - and by the sound of it, your father - was, at some stage, a bonded oarsman for the Syran Navy. Generally called a galley-slave, in the vernacular," Carrick says.
He explains that this punishment was widely used in Syran during the great naval conflicts two decades ago - murderers and the like were condemed to serve in the war galleys instead of being executed or imprisoned. Many of those that survived were freed and pardoned when peace was restored.
"Of course, this doesn't mean that he and your father weren't genuine comrades," Carrick adds a little hurriedly, noticing the look on the apprentice's face.
Before Pavel has a chance to absorb the implications of this information, however, Carrick's attention returns to the apprentice's first drawing.
"You know, this isn't a bad effort," he comments. "But you have made a couple of mistakes." He indicates the eyes on either side of the crossguard. "These two should be closed. Only the one at the top is open."
Pavel shakes his head. "No, that's definitely how it was on the tattoo. All of the eyes were open," he insists.
Carrick stares at him. "You're certain of that? Yes, I can see that you are. Very interesting. It's not something I've seen before, but it may be significant." He sighs and his expression grows dark. "But I'm not sure how any of this helps us to find out who has taken Bastian." He scowls and scratches at the stubble on his jaw. "I need to know more about this... affliction. You said that the man's aura was 'all wrong', but can you be more precise? I won't ask you to draw it, but can you tell me anything more about what you saw?"
Pavel is glad that he doesn't have to try drawing the damaged aura. It would have been difficult enough with a full palette of paints - he wouldn't know where to begin with pen and ink. However, the memory of what he'd seen is vivid in his mind's eye. He describes what he can see to Carrick, who nods and takes notes.
"Anything else?" he asks when the apprentice's description trails off.
"Just one thing," Pavel says. "It might sound a bit strange, but... well, he didn't have a shadow. I mean, he should have had one - the sun was shining, and we all had shadows - but it just wasn't there."
His sponsor has turned pale. "By the Regents!" he curses, now speaking in an intense whisper. "I never... I mean, I'd heard of... but I never thought anyone would be cruel enough to use it on a fellow man! If I find out that she is mixed up in this..." he mutters, clenching his jaw.
The adept turns his attention back to Pavel. "I already feared for Bastian's safety," he says. "Now I find myself fearing for yours - and for the other students who spoke to this vagabond. My guess is that whoever's taken Bastian have done so because they think he can lead them to the vagabond. If they know of your involvement then the odds are good that they'll come looking for you too. And the others."
"Now, I need to make some enquiries - if I can work out who our fugitive is then that might just lead me to his enemies, and hopefully to Bastian. Time is of the essence, though, so I need you to pursue another line of enquiry for me."
"Someone must have talked about your encounter in the marshes," he continues. "How else would they have known that a message had been delivered to Bastian? Given your reluctance to tell me about it, I'm fairly sure that it wasn't you - and I reckon Merry was too terrified for it to have been her. So I want you to find the other two, as soon as you possibly can, and find out who they've told. I doubt they meant to cause mischief, but clearly they spoke to someone who is part of this cabal, or to someone who saw a chance to profit from the information. We need to know who."
"Now listen carefully. The fact that this fugitive identified Stockfish as one of the sorcerers already lent his story some credence to my mind, but if the cause of his affliction is what I think it is, then this 'nest of vipers' is more extensive than I'd feared. If nothing else, it convinces me that the rot isn't confined to Imperial. So be very, very careful who you speak to and what you say. Trust no-one. Now... wait here a moment."
He stalks back to Bastian's office and returns with a candle, some paper and an envelope. He quickly writes something down on the paper, then folds it twice and slips it into the envelope. Finally he lights the candle and drips a blob of wax onto the envelope, impressing it with his signet ring. He hands the envelope to Pavel.
"Come to my office - without fail! - at the start of the second quarter this evening," he says. "If I'm not there and haven't contacted you by noon tomorrow, then you are to assume the worst. In that event - and only in that event - I want you to open this and go to the person that I have named. Show them this," he concludes, handing Pavel a small object. "And tell them everything."
It is a metal disk, very much like a coin, but with an unfamilar insignia engraved on both sides: a circle enclosing a geometric design that is something like a clover leaf.
"Keep it safe," he adds, nodding at the disk. "And don't show it to anyone else unless you have to. Now be off with you! And be careful!"
After all this, Pavel feels quite drained. He doesn't particularly wish sto stay here, though, so he wordlessly leaves. Eren or Vey, he thinks to himself. Well, he hardly knows the boy at all, and he knows the girl only marginally better. So, the girl...
~~
Soon, Pavel is stood before the gates of Imperial College, asking the porter to be let in.
"'Ullo there, young feller-me-lad," says Gully the day-porter companionably, giving Pavel a cross-eyed grin. "You're spendin' a lot more time in that Library of late. Or is it summat other than studyin' what keeps bringin' you 'ere?" he adds, with a wink.
"Well, I've come to see Erentona, if that's what you mean," say Pavel, smiling. He always smiles when he talks to people, though; the insinuations don't find any purchase in Pavel's mind.
The porter smiles back and waves him though the gate. "Go on in, then, lad. She come back from church a little while afore lunch and I ain't seen 'er leave, so she'll be somewhere 'ereabouts. Try in the refectory or the West dorms if she ain't in the Library."
Pavel heads straight for the library, flashing smiles at some of the students as he asks for Erentona's whereabouts.
It's lunchtime on Godsday, so students are bit thin on the ground, but fortunately Pavel finds a couple who have seen Eren today.
"I saw her heading for the dorms with a load of food," one boy tells him. "Can't have been more than an hour ago. She's probably still in her room."
"You reckon?" another boy chips in. "I just saw 'er in the garden on my way in 'ere, with that Vey."
When Pavel quizzes him, it transpires that he'd glimpsed Eren a few minutes ago, while looking through a partially-glazed door that leads into to the garden from the Library's entrance lobby. He'd actually seen someone else through the window as was passing, which piqued his interest because the fellow didn't look like a master or a scholar. Stopping for a closer look, he'd seen another man accompanying the first, who looked "more like an master", and had concluded that he must be a visiting adept. He'd caught sight of Eren and Vey entering the garden at the opposite end, just as he lost interest and turned away from the window.
"Haven't seen 'em come in, mind," the boy adds. "So p'raps they got collared for bein' in the garden..."
But Pavel isn't even there any more. He has taken off for the garden at a quick pace. After a few steps, he remembers what Master Carrick said and breaks into a run.
~oOo~
Kiki suppresses her irritation at been interrupted and her name being mangled and try's to keep the rhythm she has got going. [Sweep] "Well" [Sweep] "I am" [Sweep] "Kiki," she tells the messenger boy. "Close enough?" [Sweep] "So you are in the delivery business" [Sweep] "As well?" [Sweep] "Don't worry" [Sweep] "I will be finished here shortly"
Kiki likes finishing what she has started.
The boy glares at her. "Alright," he says, "But you'd better get a move on! Master Stockfish quite specifically told me to be quick! You're supposed to be setting off within the hour..."
"Interesting! That was short notice, wonder what the rush is? Still I need Master Adhuc's permission for this trip regardless."
Kiki stops sweeping and returns her broom back to her cell. "Come on - I suppose we better check with Master Adhuc to see if I have permission or Master Stockfish will be disappointed."
With that Kiki heads off to see her master.
"Wait a minute!" the boy calls after her. "Master Stockfish said to tell you that he'd already cleared it with your Master of Tutors! Can't we just go? He was very insistent that I bring you back quickly..."
This cuts no ice as she is still a bit irritated by the rather rude interruption.
"Don't worry it won't take long" she adds clearly heading down the corridor in a surprising clip of speed for one so short. "Do try to keep up. Not far now" Kiki calls back over her shoulder.
Fortunately, she finds Master Adhuc in his office. The Master of Tutors seems surprised and rather irritated to see her.
"Stockfish?" he responds, when she asks him about the expedition. "Oh, that fellow from the Imperial College. Yes, yes, yes - he asked about some field trip last week. Of course you have permission to go! Saints alive, Kiki! Didn't I already tell you that this joint teaching thing is your chance to shine? To put your somwehat dubious past behind you? I want you to show this Stockfish character that our students are every bit as good as as the damned Impies."
He belatedly notices the Imperial apprentice accompanying Kiki. "No offense, lad. Now is that everything, Kiki? I have an... ahmmmm... urgent appointment to attend to, don't you know."
(Kiki suspects that this 'urgent appointment' is his lunch, but it probably wouldn't be prudent to mention that).
The boy from Imperial chips in at this point. "Yes, can we go now? Master Stockfish told me to hurry," he explains to Adhuc, somewhat disingenuously. "He wants to set off within the hour."
"S'blood!" the corpulent Master of Tutors exclaims. "He is keen, isn't he? Yes, by all means, go, go go! Don't dilly dally here a moment longer, young lady. And remember: the honour of the school is in your hands! Do us proud!"
"Yes sir I will do my best." With the Kiki turns and heads back to her cell at double time. Once there she bags the few things she thinks she will need (not that she has much to begin with) and then heads off without looking to see if the boy is following, still going double time. Kiki is used to doing urgent delveryies, but this is the first time that it is herself that she is delivering. She marches straight up Master Stockfish then stops and waits for him to notice her.
The master welcomes her with a warm smile.
"Ah, there you are, my dear!" he says. "Sorry to rush you, but there has been a very interesting development and we have no time to waste!"
He turns to the boy who accompanies her. "That will be all, lad. Off you go," he tells him, sternly.
When they are alone, Stockfish continues. "I've just had word from an associate of a confirmed sighting of our objective," he tells the apprentice. "So I'd like to set off for Arkat's Wood without delay. We should reach there before nightfall, and can begin our search first thing in the morning." He frowns. "I say, have you by any chance ridden on horseback before?"
Kiki thinks that this probably isn't the time to mention that she has - albeit briefly - ridden on the back of one variety of equine. Riding horses was largely the province of the wealthy, so she'd never had the opportunity back at the village. She'd often pestered her mother to let her ride their old cart horse, but had been told, quite firmly, that he wouldn't tolerate a experienced rider, let alone a curious little girl. She shakes her head.
"No matter," the master breezes. "You'll be riding with me anyway, so it'll mostly be a matter of hanging on tight. Aha, we'd better be on our way," he adds, as the sound of a clock striking floats in through the open window of his room. He pats his pack. "I've plenty of provisions here, but I always find riding is better on an empty stomach, at least to begin with. The horse will need a rest stop in a couple of hours, so we can have a bite to eat then. Follow me."
The adept leads Kiki along a series of corridors and out into a quiet quadrangle, with stables on one side. Asking her to wait, he enters the latter and chats amiably with a stablehand, returning after a few minutes with a saddled horse, a young and lively-looking bay roan stallion. Murmuring to the horse to calm it, he motions to Kiki to follow him and takes her out through a side gate in the College walls, which he carefully locks behind him. Mounting with the confidence of an regular horseman, Stockfish holds out a hand towards the young apprentice, who is rather wary of the large and powerful animal.
"Don't worry - he's not as fierce as he looks," the adept says with a grin. "Here, take hold of my hand and see if you can get a toe in the stirrup," he tells her.
The horse whinnies in protest as, after several attempts, Kiki finally clambers onto its back and wriggles into position behind Stockfish. Patting it affectionately and muttering some soothing words, the adept calms his steed again, then nudges it into a gentle walk. Trotting through the streets of Syran, Kiki stares around with interest at the different perspective afforded by this novel vantage point, while clinging to the adept's robes and trying not to slip off.
~~
They leave by Eastgate and almost immediately depart from the Marost road to follow a track northwards, setting a pace that Kiki finds alarming and exhilarating in equal measure. True to his word, Stockfish breaks off from this seemingly headlong gallop after a couple of hours and tethers the horse in a lush meadow by a stream, while he and Kiki eat a picnic lunch.
Kiki finds the meadow relaxing after the rush of the morning and their hasty departure. Thinking back, even though bareback in every sense, riding the Unicorn had been far more comfortable. At least that is what she remembers anyway. Perhaps she had been too exhilarated to notice at the time. She had found the animal's rhythm after a while but not before going numb down below.
It would be very easy for Kiki to be swallowed by the peace of the meadow but still some things are bothering her.
"Master Stockfish now that we are out of the city perhaps you would not mind telling me what exactly our objective is? I assume it is an animal of some sort?"
"Yes indeed," Stockfish acknowledges. "And that's why I asked you to come with me, my dear. As you demonstrated on the field trip, you have a rare gift when it comes to animals. I'm hoping that this affinity of yours will enable us both to get closer to our subject than I have ever managed myself. I've been trying to study it for many years, you see, but apart from the occasional fleeting glimpse my efforts have all been in vain. Now, with your help, I hope that we will both be able to study that noblest of all the beasts: the unicorn."
He leans forward, a gleam of excitement in his eyes. "I can't begin to tell you what this would mean to me," he says, a smile playing over his lips. "As I'm sure you know, the unicorn is much more than just an animal, and for a student of the wizardly arts in particular its study offers great rewards. Great rewards," he repeats, his eyes taking on a faraway look.
Another chance to study Unicorns! Weeeee! Brilliant! Kiki thinks to herself.
Then a bit more calmly she replies "Oh yes! A more noble essence you will not find. And so strong and handsome that a glimpse can take your breath away," she enthuses, with a sigh. "So, yes - studying them is very rewarding. My paintings could just not do him justice. But back then I suppose I could only consider what my eyes could see." Kiki looks over to Stockfish "Did you hear my Disputation on Unicorns by any chance?"
"Indeed I did," the adept smiles. "It's one of the reasons that I asked you along on this expedition. I know that many of my fellow masters were doubtful about your claim to have actually encountered one of these noble beasts - and I must confess that I had my share of doubts too, at first - but the talents that you demonstrated on our Field Trip gave your story the ring of truth and persuaded me to offer you this opportunity by way of reward. Tell me," he continues, looking at her with sudden intensity. "Where did your encounter occur? You hail from one of the villages upriver, I think... Nortark, is it? Was your encounter in the woods near there, or further afield?"
Kiki casts her mind back to that wonderful day.
"Oh I was nearly half a day out from the village looking for herbs for my mum when I first found the droppings. Nearly walked past them but they looked odd and they certainly did not smell anything like horse or deer. See." Kiki fishes in her pouch and brings out of tiny pinch of a dry brown material and offers it to Stockfish. "Looks a bit like acorns and smells of lilacs. Load of medical properties."
Stockfish takes the material and rubs it between his fingers before smelling it. Then he touches it with his tongue and quickly grimaces.
"Oh!" Kiki blushes "Sorry, forgot to say it still tastes like horse shit."
Doing her best to ignore his glower Kiki continues.
"It was still warm when I found it and could not quite believe what I had found. Luckily I managed to pick up the trail and followed it. I guess he knew I was there anyway cos he was just standing there looking at me when I stumbled into the clearing. Didn't bat an eye lid."
"Me I was gob smacked as you can imagine. Just stood and stared at this lovely creature that looked like it had just stepped out of a story book. Funny thing I wasn't the least bit scared. He had a horn this size," says Kiki putting her hand a generous three feet apart.
"Then he just trots over and sniffs me all over. Nearly knocked me over when he rubbed himself against me. So what could I do. I had read the stories of how you are meant to ride a unicorn. Anyway just then it felt so right so I dumped everything on a bush. He seemed to approve as he was back sniffing, and things..." Kiki blushes even more at this point. "Anyway after that I got to ride on his back. Was the best day of my life" she end dreamily.
"I imagine it was," says Stockfish. He has been listening intently to Kiki's story and now his eyes are glistening with excitement."Let us hope that the obvious affinity you have for these magnificent creatures gives us the opportunity to repeat - or even to better - that wonderful experience."
~~
Having finished their meal, the apprentice and the adept resume their exhilarating journey towards Arkat's Wood. Kiki enjoys the second half of the ride more, having grown accustomed to the alarming pace and now feeling very excited about the object of their expedition. They follow the perimeter of a wooded area for most of this part of the journey, its familiar sights and smells making the diminutive apprentice feel very much at home.
By the time they've reached the southern edge of Arkat's Wood it is already growing dark. The difference between this dense, ancient forest and the tamer, civilised woodland that Kiki knows and loves is pronounced. A palpable sense of danger seems to hang in the air here. Not a threat, exactly, but rather the unmistakable impression that something - perhaps the very forest itself - is watching.
When a shadowy figure emerges from the gloomy interior and strides boldly towards them, Kiki hastily smothers her urge to scream with alarm. This, she realises, as Stockfish calls out a greeting, must be the associate that he mentioned.
"Well met, Tom," the adept calls. "Is that our dinner?" He's obviously referring to the pair of rabbits that are dangling from the newcomer's pack.
"Aye," the man responds, his voice gruff. "Reckon it is. Mind, if I'd known we'd 'ave company, I might've brung more'n a brace o' conies. Who's the lassie?"
"This is Kiki," Stockfish tells him. "She's going to help us with our quest, aren't you my dear?
Kiki bobs to Tom "Yes sir I will do my best"
"She has a real gift when it comes to animals," Stockfish continues. "And she's had a previous encounter with our one of our elusive friends. Kiki, this is my good friend Tom. He's a tracker by trade and he's undertaken to find the noble beast for us. I'd wager there's not a man alive who knows these woods better."
Tom builds a fire and erects a crude shelter, then quickly skins the rabbits and uses them to prepare a simple but hearty meal for the three of them. He's no great conversationalist, but Stockfish more than compensates for his associate's taciturnity. As the tracker sits by the fire, smoking a clay pipe and listening to the adept chattering away cheerfully, Kiki has a chance to study him. His face is weatherbeaten and wrinkled and his unruly hair is shot through with grey, but it's hard to judge his age. A long, drooping moustache conceals a thin, unsmiling mouth and a pair of bristly eyebrows jut out over his heavily-lidded eyes.
Kiki eventually directly addresses the tracker
"Tom - is it OK I call you that? Its just we haven't been introduced..."
The man nods and grunts affirmatively.
"So, what brings you to look for unicorns? Have you seen one before?"
"Oh aye. Not up close, like," he admits. "But I seen un." After a pause he adds: "'I been trailin' un for three day now."
"That's why we're here, Kiki," Stockfish puts in. "And why we came with such haste. Tom sent me word that he was on the creature's trail and I knew there was not a moment to lose. And hopefully, in the morning, we'll see it for ourselves! But perhaps we should all retire now - we'll need to make an early start on the morrow."
Kiki finds it hard to sleep, partly because of the unfamiliar surroundings and the discomforts of her rough bed, but mostly because she is too nervous and excited. After what feels like an hour or more, she hears the two men talking in a low murmur, but can't quite make out their words.
"Oh why do city folk always have to talk in stage whisper? Don't they realise how well sound travels out here?" Kiki thinks to herself. "Well I'm awake now - wonder what they are planning for tomorrow? Bet it will be good, well I hope it is anyway".
With that Kiki decides to edge closer to hear what is being said.
Creeping as close as she dares - she knows only too well how hard it is to move silently outside, and how far the sound of a snapped twig can carry - she overhears a few snatches of the conversation.
"... Fer me to get close," the tracker, Tom is saying. "Reckon 'im can smell me, or summat, an' 'e don't 'ang about when 'e do."
Stockfish's reply is very hard to hear at first, but Kiki makes out the phrase "Less wary with the girl around" and his concluding words: "After that, it won't matter."
"Aye, but what about the..." she hears Tom ask, but the rest of his question is drowned out by the sound of Stockfish coughing. "'If she were to..." he continues, before another prolonged bout of coughing intervenes. "...be missed?" Kiki hears him finish.
"Oh, don't worry about Kiki," Stockfish replies, his voice clear now. "She'll be going home with very happy memories of this expedition. Of that much I am certain," he concludes.
This seems to bring the conversation to an end. A short while later, Kiki hears one of the men snoring and decides to return to her rough bed.
~oOo~
It had been bothering Eren, the question of what these men could want. She had no wealth, no contacts, no secrets worth taking. But suddenly she knows what it must be that they are after: the orb. And she knows that she is not going to let them get it.
She spins and charges back the way that she'd come. She doesn't look back to see what the men are doing, she just gathers her best speed and charges straight down the path, woe to Vey or anyone else who gets in her way. To make sure of that she prepares her staff to ward off any attempt to grab her, and as she approaches the suddenly mysterious student she yells in her loudest voice "Move Vey! Intruders!"
This tactic initially seems to take Vey by surprise, but as Eren bears down on him he drops into a half-crouch, which reminds her of a fencer's fighting stance, and a cruel smile breaks over his face. Immediately guessing that he intends to use her momentum against her, Eren starts to slow her headlong charge, then changes her mind. When the boy moves to intercept her and sticks out a foot with a look of triumph on his face, she is ready. Neatly side-stepping, she swipes downwards with her staff, simultaneously counter-balancing her swerve and catching Vey's ankle with a satisfying crack.
She hears him cursing colourfully behind her as she heads for the door, but she can also hear the sound of running footsteps and the two men calling to each other.
"She's heading for the door!" she hears. "Don't let her get away!"
Staggering the last few strides to the door, Eren recalls that it opens out into the garden, worse luck! At least the handle is not complicated. Thoughts flash through her mind--being grabbed from behind as she tries to get through the door, rough necks gawking in amazement as special effects in plays, plays where someone exit is masked by a drum behind stage and a commotion on the other side, the door and her staff could be seen as a drum and beater....in a flash she has her plan! She plunges one hand into a pocket to grab the prepared ashes, while the other swings her staff back.
She slams her staff into the door, and tosses the powder and a word of power just before she slams into the door herself. She barely has time to grin at the thought of the rough-necks reactions when smoke erupts right in front of them from Vey, before she smashes into the door and bounces back from the impact.
Unfortunately for Eren, things don't go quite according to plan. The packet of powder flies open almost as soon as it leaves her hand, but not soon enough for her to stop the spell activating. She slams into the door and abruptly finds herself engulfed in her own cloud of smoke. Dazed, coughing, her eyes streaming, she scrabbles desperately at the handle, while glancing back at pursuers. As the smoke clears, she sees Vey walking calmly towards her, a nasty grin on his face. He quickly loses his smile, however, when the two men push roughly past him.
"Get out from under our feet, boy!" one of them snarls. "You can leave this one to me," he adds, directing his remark at the second man.
The speaker is shorter and considerably broader than his companion; he wears a dark, beautifully-tailored, hooded cloak, which conceals his face in unusually deep shadow. Eren recognises his voice as the more cultured of the two that she'd heard earlier. The other man is sleight of build, attired in less opulent and fairly non-descript clothing; his face is uncovered, but instantly forgettable.
Advancing towards Eren, the hooded man lifts his arms, revealing hands that are adorned with numerous bejewelled rings. Momentarily frozen with fear, Eren watches in horror as he utters an incantation and holds out a sheet of paper in one hand, which seems to be covered in handwriting. Extending a stubby finger, the adept completes his invocation and points at the apprentice. Her eyes widen as the script seems to leap off the page, whirling and spiraling together to form a stream of black liquid that jets towards her.
When she realized that he was going to use magic against an Imperial student, on Imperial grounds, Eren was appalled, but immediately determined to thwart such a travesty. Then her attention leaped to the page the man carelessly showed to her. The characters on it were in the formal mode, which she had so laboriously learned at the First Church of the Scripture, and of course facing him. Reading it upside down was not the problem however, the problem was that he was waving the sheet about. No! Her eyes widened as she realized it was not the page that was moving, but the very letters themselves!
All she'd made out was something about `the person before me' but she knew that `person' implied the man rune. If that defined the target of the spell, then if she could somehow shift that single runic association...
Eren grunts "plant!" as she throws her will at modifying the essence of the spell, to change it from seeking a 'man' to a 'plant.' Time seems to slow as her mind locks with the spell and she tried to twist it by sheer force of determination. A far corner of her mind noted an surge of heat from the orb lying against her chest.
Eren can feel her manipulation of the spell working! Then it gets yanked back towards proper runic alignment by a more skillful mind at the last second. It still feels a little disorganized to her as it hits, but then she stops analyzing it so dispassionately as it takes effect.
The stream of black liquid seems to burst as it strikes her, unravelling into a host of spiralling tendrils, which promptly wrap themselves around her and then contract, binding her arms to her sides and her legs together around the knees. Her audacious attempt to subvert the spell has clearly had some effect, though, because the tension of these inky bonds almost immediately slackens off, leaving her limbs with a little more freedom of movement.
"A spirited defence - for an apprentice," he opponent comments. "But don't be too pleased with yourself, girl, or I shall be forced to teach you a lesson. Which would be regrettable. And, of course, very painful."
"That's right, lass," the other man says. "Don't do nothing stupid, now. We ain't plannin' to hurt you, but that don't mean we won't, if that's what it takes."
He moves cautiously towards her, eyes narrowed and never leaving her face, but his next remark is directed at Vey. "What's the quickest way out of here, boy?"
"Back gate," the other apprentice responds immediately. "I can show you the..." he begins.
"Just tell me," the man snaps.
~~
After a moment of panic when the binding had first wrapped her up, Eren had calmed down when she realized that they weren't going to strangle her or crush her or anything gruesome like that. She really doesn't like being bound, but she's certainly felt trapped in many situations in the past, and she's always found her way out of them eventually. When they start talking about how to get out of the garden she realizes that they are not after the orb, or at least not just after it. Then she realizes that the spell will make it hard for her to walk, she almost giggles with relief; would they actually try carrying her out of here?
With that, she realizes that while things are not going well, this is far from over. In fact, so far from over that she needs to start working on a longer term plan. At the moment they outnumber her, and have the upper hand, but taking her anywhere without being noticed is surely not that easy? She realizes that haste is probably her enemy here, as that may panic them and lead them to take stronger measures on her than she'd enjoy. Patience had seen her out of more than one place in the past, that was what was probably most called for here and now.
That she wanted to get away she had little doubt, but when would be the correct time? Might it be best to go along for now, if that would let her learn more and what was out the back gate again? Or try to stay here for as long as possible, in hopes that someone would see them? She really needed to learn more to figure out the right way to go about this. What was that Master Atlan always drilled in about researching a spell? Right: "You have to consider both the emanation--what you see and hear and smell and feel--and the essential nature. Focusing on the one while ignoring the other could result, for example, in a candle's flame instead of a flaming sword, or a flaming sword which does not burn." That seemed to apply here as well.
The essential nature was obvious enough, and she tried to focus enough to get her symbolic sight working properly, to see if it would tell her anything about her attackers, or even about this dratted spell. Even if the first image wasn't informative perhaps over time clues would add up.
For the mundane side, well, she'd already looked at them, she didn't want to be touched by them, she doubted smell would tell her much, but sound, or more in particular words, those might be useful. Lacking anything brilliant, she blurts out the most obvious question: "What do you want with me anyway? What could want that you wouldn't just ask me about? Vey, do you know what is so shocking that they have to risk dragging me off rather than talking to me about it?"
"Who said anything about dragging you off?" the hooded man sneers, before Vey has a chance to reply. "We're merely inviting you to accompany us. Granted, if you were to turn down that invitation, we'd be very hurt... and then so would you," he adds menacingly. "As to what we want... well, I think you know that already. But enough chatter. Lead the way to this back gate, boy."
Vey nods and goes over to the door that Eren had been trying to open. Kneeling beside it, he makes a quick gesture and mutters under his breath, eliciting a brief glimmer from the lock. He turns to Eren and gives her a brief, self-satisfied grin, then opens the door and signal the others to follow. The taller man takes Eren by the arm and ushers her through, while the hooded man brings up the rear. Eren is forced to shuffle along at first, her legs still restricted by the inky bonds of the hooded man's spell, but these soon loosen and eventually seem to melt away.
Eren knows that the 'back gate' where Vey is taking them is at the rear of the college, leading off a small quadrangle beside the masters' stables and out into a narrow lane. Her best hope, she thinks, is that they'll run into one of the Imperial College masters on their way there, but as it's Godsday she knows that the College will be deserted - most people will be having lunch with their families, or, failing that, in the Refectory. As she and her captors follow Vey through a series of disappointingly empty corridors her mind starts racing again, trying to work out who these people are and what they might want.
She is puzzled by the involvement of Vey and his apparent connection with these two men. The hooded man is obviously an adept, but Eren isn't sure that he belongs to one of Syran's schools. Surely none of them would dare to trespass on Imperial grounds, let alone try to abduct an Imperial apprentice! The other man seems very intense and his curiously anonymous appearance makes her suspect that magic is involved, but he doesn't strike her as the adept type.
What can she deduce from the spell that the hooded man used? Well, it seemed to be associated with the writing on that piece of paper. Perhaps he came from a school that specialised in writing-related magic? She'd never heard of such a speciality, but since wizardry schools were notoriously secretive that didn't count for much.
But what about Vey? Hadn't he just used a spell on the lock of the door? Was that just petty magic, or something more sinister? Wait a minute! He'd been an apprentice at another school, hadn't he? Perhaps this hooded man was an adept from that school. But what did that mean? Was Vey a spy, sent to Imperial to try to steal its magic? Or was this adept here for some other reason? Think, Eren, think!
The Orb! It has to be! That's why they didn't just take what they want and leave her alone - Master Atlan told her that it had 'imprinted' on her, which made it dangerous for anyone else to try to touch it. And he said that Lord Savaran was angry that Alph... the Headmaster had given it to her. Could Savaran be behind this? It seemed unthinkable that they would bring in an adept from outside the city. And what did this imply about the Orb? And...
Eren's frantic line of reasoning is interrupted when she sees - thanks be to all the Saints! - a master coming out of a door up ahead. Her heart sinks, however, when he turns without noticing them and begins walking away...
~~
Eren has been waiting for this moment. Pitching her voice to carry she pulls out her best damsel in distress (largely pinched from her sister's performance in `The Ladies and the Lions').
"Brutes! Unhand me! How dare you try to abduct a young woman, and an Imperial Student, to have your ways with!"
Then she starts resisting being dragged off, planting her feet and trying not to be moved, ready to let herself fall entirely to the ground as dead weight to make herself harder to carry off.
Eren's captors respond quickly, attempting to smother her cries and manhandle her into an alcove, but they are quite obviously too late - the struggling apprentice allows her self a moment of grim triumph as she hears footsteps running towards them.
"Here, what's this!" the approaching master calls. "Unhand that student this instant!"
The tall man holding Eren mutters a curse and reaches for his weapon, but his accomplice shakes his head and turns to face the approaching master. It's one of the College's senior masters, who had been on the panel of judges at the Disputation, but Eren can't remember his name.
"Explain yourselves!" he demands, his eyes literally flashing with power. "By the Redeemer! How dare you... interfere with an Imperial student! And on College grounds too. This is intolerable! I'll see you in manacles for this! What in the Saints' holy names do you think you are doing?" he thunders.
"That, Master Hannigan, is really none of your concern," the hooded man responds calmly, stepping forward. "This young lady is coming with me."
Hannigan's jaw drops and his eyes grow wide.
"Y... you!" he gasps. "But... surely you can't mean to..." He glances at Eren, plainly horrified. "I mean... this girl won the blessed Disputation, man! She'll be missed, and soon! What are you going to do with her?" he adds, with a little tremor of fear in his voice.
"I say again," the hooded man replies in an icy tone. "That is none of your concern. Now walk away, old man, before you exhaust my patience."
A flash of anger passes briefly over Hannigan's face, but it is replaced just as swiftly by fear. Bowing his head and avoiding Eren's gaze, he turns and hurries away.
The Master totally letting her down feels like a blade of ice cutting through her innards. A blade so cold she isn't sure that she can even feel the whole of the damage yet. But when she sees the master's face, and hears his words, Eren realizes that this is probably more than a robbery that she is enduring. Sure they want the Orb, but they can hardly leave her alive to identify them afterwards, can they? She'd been a fool for thinking she could go along to find out more about them, to come after them later. She doesn't have time to deal with the ice in her guts, she has to find a way out, before they get her somewhere more private, and apparently she's going to have to somehow do it by herself.
What if she just gave them the orb? But it has those devensive spells on it, it seems, so that she can't give it to them or else it might attack them. And of course then it finally hits her that maybe her best plan is to give them exactly what they want! Now to just sell it to them so that they don't take appropriate protective measures.Oh if this works it will be so sweet!
While her captors are still partially making sure that the master is gone, she quickly grabs the orb, then sobs "OK, here is what you want then!" and she tosses the orb towards the taller man, confident that he has the reflexes to catch it.
Her confidence is well-placed. The tall man calmly snatches the orb out of the air with his left hand, then lets out an involuntary yelp of pain and surprise. The orb emits a burst of bluey-white light, which makes all of the man's limbs jerk into rigidity, throwing him against a wall and forcing him to drop it. Stockfish curses and then advances towards Eren with a snarl, while his accomplice stands staring at the orb - now rolling slowly across the corridor - with a dazed expression on his face.
This is what Eren had been waiting for! As the hooded man advances towards her, she surges towards him while emitting the loudest yell she can manage in hopes of startling him. If she can just avoid tripping over the remains of the binding spell she hopes to slam the wizard hard through sheer greater mass, hopefully hurting him in pay back for his effrontery.
The hooded man was clearly a stronger wizard than her, and no doubt the tall man was a better fighter, so they thought she'd be no problem. But she'd now used magic against the tall man, now to use brute force on the hooded one, the bloody bugger who was obviously the source of her problems today.
Her daring gambit seems to take the hooded man completely by surprise, but he still gives her a moment of doubt. The sight of the young apprentice charging towards him obviously gives the man pause, prompting a hasty change in his own trajectory, which immediately throws him off-balance. Even as Eren feels a grin of triumph forming on her lips, however, the wizard seems to regain his balance somewhat and glances at her, clearly trying to anticipate her next move. Rather than daunting her, however, this enrages Eren. No-one kidnaps her and gets away with it! Putting on a new burst of speed, she slams into her opponent before he has the time to find his feet and sends him crashing to the floor.
Delighted, but rather taken aback by her success, Eren hesitates... and then hears footsteps behind her!
~oOo~
Kiki wakes in the half-light of dawn with a liberal sprinkling of dew in her hair and a crick in her neck. The two men are both already up; Stockfish greets her cheerily and Tom passes her a bowl of grey porridge, which thankfully tastes a lot better than it looks.
"Tom will take us to the last place he spied our objective," Stockfish tells her. "And if our equine friend isn't there, we will follow his trail."
The tracker leads them into the deep forest. The woodland at the perimeter feels reassuringly familiar, but Kiki can sense - almost taste - a change as they enter Arkat's Wood proper. The trees and the tangled undergrowth become more and more dense and the sounds of the wildlife grow louder and louder, but this is nothing special for a girl who grew up on the edge of a forest. No, it is the sense of otherness, of something intangible, that really makes the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
If Tom and Stockfish can feel the change too, then they give no sign. A few minutes after crossing through this invisible boundary, the tracker silently signals that they should stop, then creeps forward warily himself, climbing up to the top of a short incline. Stockfish and Kiki watch as he slowly raises his head over the brow, peering intently. After a few tense moments, however, he stands up and turns back to them, shaking his head, then waves them forward.
They emerge into a singularly beautiful sunlit glade, carpeted with soft verdant grass. Tom explains that this is where he had last seen the unicorn, with the unspoken implication that he was rather hoping it would still be here. "But ne'er mind - I'll find 'un yet," he concludes. "Best you rest over 'ere awhile, 'til I find 'is spoor."
"I hope you slept better than I did," Stockfish says to Kiki, yawning and stretching. "It pains me to admit it, but I think I'm getting too old for this sort of thing," he adds, with a grin. "I miss my bed!"
They watch Tom as he walks slowly around the clearing, occasionally stopping to peer at something or to sniff the air. Eventually he stops and turns to Stockfish, indicating that he's ready to proceed with a nod of his head.
"Not much of a conversationalist, is he?" Stockfish whispers to Kiki as they walk over to the tracker.
"No but not much to talk to out here except the trees" Kiki replies "And they don't talk back... " she considers what she just said "Well usually that is."
Tom leads them on through the forest, stopping every now and then to examine something - a disturbed patch of earth or some trodden-down undergrowth. After a couple of hours, Stockfish suggests that they stop for a bite to eat, which draws a rather withering look from the outdoorsman.
"''Im's close," he says. "We mun't stop now."
"Of course, of course," Stockfish says quickly. "Don't want to lose the scent, eh?"
He glances at Kiki and smiles. "Are you ready for this?" he asks in an excited whisper, ignoring the scathing look that this draws from the tracker. "When Tom tells us the noble beast is in sight, I want you to go ahead alone to try to... befriend him. That will allow me to observe him more effectively, from a safe distance, obviously. All right?" he asks.
"I'm ready for the Unicorn, but please don't remind me about the others observing bit," Kiki says. "I was alone and younger the last time I did this. Rather not have any reminders that I am being watched in my birthday suit."
Another hour passes. Kiki is feeling hungry and tired. It's hard to sustain the level of excitement that she's been experiencing and she's starting to think that they'll never find the unicorn.
Then Tom stops and holds up his hand. Stockfish and Kiki wait anxiously while the tracker peers off into the forest. Then he turns back to them and nods, a look of satisfaction on his face.
Stockfish looks expectantly at Kiki.
She blushes strongly now the moment has come.
"Well you don't expect me to strip off in front of you do you?" Kiki whispers, gesturing for him to leave then obediently moves off.
Once alone (sort of) Kiki calms her mind then strips down to her vest, then after a bit of deliberation parts with that as well. Then with just her pouch for company (there are some things a girl will not easily part with) she heads off in the indicated direction. She takes a small pinch of unicorn dung from its parcel and smears it in the shape of the beast and magic runes on her skin for luck .
Surprisingly she manages to put her potential observers from her mind as the excitement of the occasion wells up inside her. With a grin from ear to ear she steps out in the direction of the beast savouring the breeze on her skin. Remembering not to be too forward and how things started the last time she starts to wordlessly sing sending her clear voice gently into the woods.
Kiki almost immediately catches sight of the unicorn, grazing quietly nearby.As she draws nearer, he registers her presence with a start, muscles bunching and eyes going wide with alarm. He is an impressive sight: a pure white, pony-sized equine with cloven hooves, a long mane, a beard-like tuft on his chin and a slender spiralling horn that emerges from his forehead.
Even though this is not her first encounter with a unicorn at close quarters, the sight of this magnificent beast quite takes Kiki's breath away, and for a terrible moment she is certain that he is about to bolt off into the forest. Then the unicorn seems to gain confidence, perhaps noticing for the first time that the human confronting him is a young female. He tosses his head and snorts at her, as if challenging her to prove her good intentions, his nostrils flaring wide to take in her scent.
Kiki focuses on radiating her own motives and on staying relaxed. Suppressing any echo from last nights overheard conversation she concentrates on her own unsullied motives, aligning herself totally with this beautiful creature in front of herself. Then on impulse she kneels in front of him arms wide, open handed and head tilted back exposing her neck leaving her self quite open to any attack.
When she kneels, the unicorn tosses his head and shows the whites of his eyes again. Then he takes a couple of steps towards her and sniff inquisitively. Watching him nervously, Kiki has the distinct impression that he is frowning at her, even though it lacks the requisite physiognomy. When the creature whinnies nd nickers at her, however, this impression is confirmed and it is her turn to be startled. While the sounds that he makes are equine, there's no mistaking their import: the unicorn is speaking to her - albeit haltingly - and in her own language, too!
"Smell fear, little sister," it says. "What you hiding?"
Kiki hesitate for only a moment then replies with total sincerity in a slow and soft voice trying not to be overheard by the watchers "Sorry wizard and hunter in wood watching now, don't think they can be trusted. Please don't risk yourself. I wanted to join with you but your safety comes first, don't worry about me. Tell me what I can do to help?"
The unicorn becomes very still and very quiet, its mighty head bowed low. Kiki holds her breath, uncertain how it will react to her open-hearted appeal. Then it looks up at her, eyes shining.
"Risk self for me?" it says, a note of wonder in its voice. Then it bends at one knee and bows its head. "Owe you debt. You true friend. But you not need stay - both can fly to safe place."
Kiki risks a glance towards Stockfish and sees him watching her intently; she can't see any sign of Tom, which worries her. She's still not sure what the wizard intends to do, but her instincts - and Eren's warning about him - tell her that it can't be good. But does she really want to flee with the unicorn?
~oOo~
Pavel rushes through the door and dashes across the garden, looking all about him for some sign of Eren or Vey. The place appears deserted, however, so he heads for the opposite side and through the door that he finds there. The dim passage beyond also seems to be deserted, but he keeps on running. Up ahead, at end of the passage, he can see what looks like a junction with a larger corridor. He hears someone crying out up ahead. Is that Eren? He puts on another burst of speed and skids into the larger corridor.
He can see a group of people at the far end, and one is quite obviously Eren. As he watches there is an altercation and one of the men - an Imperial College master by his robes - turns and walks away. As he moves warily towards the group Pavel hears Eren shouting something, then there is a sudden bright flash and a man cries out in pain.
Without thinking, Pavel rushes headlong towards the group of men, leaving it until the last minute to decide into which one of them he will fly.
As he draws nearer, he sees that one of the men is leaning against the wall with a stunned expression on his face, then watches in amazement as Eren charges into the other man, knocking him to the floor. What Pavel can see that she can't, however, is a third figure coming up behind her. He is more than a little shocked to realise that it is Vey - and it looks like the other apprentice is about to grab Eren!
Pavel grins as he barrels towards the boy in a low, bustling charge. He leads with his right shoulder, making to barge into the boy but, at the last moment, halts and brings his left arm flying up like a club, heading for the boy's throat.
Vey reacts with surprising speed, sidestepping Pavel and grabbing him by the wrist. He twists it painfully, making Pavel cry out involuntarily.
"Not so fast, splasher," he snarls. "You should really learn to keep that nose out of other people's business. Perhaps this will help..."
With that he draws back his fist, obviously preparing to punch Pavel in the face.
The Naval College apprentice is too quick for him, however, his reflexes honed by countless hours spent training with his house water polo team. He ducks under the blow and manages to wrench his wrist free of the other boy's grasp. His twisted wrist is still smarting painfully, but at least now he has the freedom to strike back at his opponent.
Risking a quick glance at the others, Pavel is relieved to see that the hooded man is still lying prone on the floor, but the taller man leaning against the wall looks like he's about to snap out of his daze. Eren meanwhile seems to be chasing something along the corridor.
With Eren running away, Pavel is free to concentrate on Vey. "So, given up on dusty old logic, eh?" he says, taking a step out of Vey's reach, "trying a more direct approach to get what you want?"
"Why don't you give it a rest? I know a lot of people here who can make your life...uncomfortable, and when I tell them you were beating a girl up... We don't take kindly to that, you know, not here in my home town." Pavel smiles confidently at Vey and waits to see how he reacts.
"It's my town too, slush-for-brains!" Vey snarls. "And if you think you have powerful friends, you wait until mine... errr... finish with you," he concludes weakly, glancing at his two incapacitated companions. Then, in an effort to recover his poise, he spits out: "They'll be after you too, you know. I told them all about our 'friend' in the marsh and his message - and that glassmaker you delivered it to."
As Pavel's eyes widen at the implications of this admission, the other boy smiles cruelly, an unmistakeable glint of malice in his eyes.
"You saw what the dark master here did to that so-called 'knight'," he adds, nodding at the hooded man, who is just starting to stir. "Think he'll be any gentler with you?"
Pavel laughs in his face. "Not a very scary prospect at the moment, though, is he?" he observes coolly. "What's the matter, Vey? Are you too much of a coward to fight your own battles? Need someone to hold your hand?"
Vey looks furious at this remark, but he says nothing and appears to be in a quandary about what to do next. Meanwhile Pavel notices that the tall man has recovered from his daze and is advancing towards Eren, who is whispering something urgently - a spell, perhaps? - with a very intense expression on her face.
~~
Eren had expected everyone else at this point to be trying to get the orb, so she had thrown herself towards where she recalled it falling, willing to bull through anyone in the way.
She's more than a little surprised to find that she's the only one chasing the little sphere as it rolls along the corridor. She looks over her shoulder as she stumbles after it, to see the hooded man lying prone on the floor and the other man still leaning against the wall, but now shaking his head vigourously, as if trying to clear it. Just as the orb is in reach, however, there's another distraction: the sound of footsteps running towards her from behind, followed by a yelp of pain. She glances back again, to see Vey - who she'd all but forgotten - holding another boy by the wrist and preparing to hit him. Wait a moment! isn't that Pavel? Ooops!
Eren stumbles, flailing her arms to keep her balance, and the orb rolls out of reach again.
She wants to help Pavel, but throwing her size around is one thing, getting involved in a fist fight between two boys is another. So she chickens out and takes a moment to more carefully try again to control the orb, this time first thinking before leaping.
She scurries ahead of the rolling orb, crouches, pulls a handkerchief from her pocket, and uses it to make a soft 'net' between her hands, using it to help coral the tricksy thing.
Hopefully things with Pavel will sort themselves out before she has to do something...
Eren breathes a sigh of relief when her improvised net snares the orb. Holding it tightly, she's struck by how reassuring its smooth, hard and surprisingly weighty presence feels in her hands.
Looking up, she sees that Pavel and Vey are squaring off, but they seem to be exchanging words rather than blows. The hooded man is still lying on the floor, but he's groaning and starting to stir now. Her attention is immediately drawn to the taller man, however - he seems to have recovered from the shock of the orb and glances around at her as she watches. Then his eyes narrow and he takes a halting step in her direction.
It suddenly hits her that the hooded man must be part of some secret society or hidden order that could threaten even an Imperial Master. What he wants with her orb she can't imagine, but she is comforted by knowing what she is faced with, and hence what to do about it.
As with most things, Helmat had her covered. Better yet, the church and all the saint plays agreed with Helmat on this one. What had once seemed dusty lessons suddenly seem real and urgent, and it was ever so clear: there was only one proper course.
"Truck not with those who secret their knowledge, for they walk the Hell path." That standard phrase from Church comes out as more of a whisper than a loud declaration, but its familiar rythms give her confidence, and she shifts to Helmat with more confidence: "I deny the eaters of knowledge, I deny the eaters of souls, I deny the eaters of man--I deny those who walk outside the light of righteousness. I call upon the saints above to witness my denial, I call upon my brethren to witness my denial, I call upon these stones to witness my denial--I call upon these hallowed halls to witness my denial. Begone from this place which does not welcome such as you!"
Now, if only the college will respond...
And respond it does!
As all eyes turn towards her, Eren wonders if her whisper had been louder than she intended. Then, with a thrill of excitement, she realises that *something* has answered her impassioned invocation. The disdainful contempt on the tall man's face as he advances towards here is abruptly replaced by fear, as spectral forms emerge from the walls of the corridor and rush towards him. Vey looks visibily shaken as a group of the same ghostly entities heads in his direction too.
"Spectral guardians!" he gasps, the colour draining from his face.
Eren remembers some dark mention of these entities in a lecture when she was a neophyte, along the lines of "don't break the school rules or the spectral guardians will get you".
Cursing through gritted teeth, the tall man flails ineffectually at the guardians as they circle around him. Pale and translucent with hideously distorted bodies and faces, the spectres seem to be insubstantial, but the touch of their claw-like hands is obviously causing the intruder considerable pain. Staggering towards his hooded companion, who is still lying on the floor, the tall man tries to revive him with a none-too-gentle kick, shouting "Wake up, curse you! I thought you said we would be safe from the College defences?". The hooded man groans and stirs, but he still looks too groggy to be an immediate threat. More spectres are hovering in the air around him.
Vey, meanwhile, seems to have avoided the spectres wrath so far, if not their attention. "Look, look!" he is shouting, indicating his apprentice robes. "I'm a student here! Friend! Friend!"
However, it is poor Pavel who draws Eren's attention. Horrified, she realises that her would-be rescuer, in the guardians eyes at least, is also an intruder here...
Much as she'd like to see the intruders and Vey smushed, or at least trussed, Eren is aware that either the cloaked man or the tall man could no doubt defeat her in their own ways if they recover. Even Vey might be trouble. To her the clear objective now is to get away while she can.
But, she can't abandon brave Pavel - he came to her rescue! She cannot now leave him to the guardians and intruders. Especially as the guardians are her own fault. If only she could disguise him or hide him from them somehow.
Then she has it! It makes perfect sense if you don't get stuck on standard representations.
She rushes forward to him, pulling from her pocket the tea towel that had not so long ago contained her lunch. "Hold still a moment," she snaps at Pavel, and drapes the cloth over his head like a hood. "This is a pocket, and you are in it, try not to attract magical attention please," she explains, as she lays a carefully preserved spider web on top of the towel and mutters a few syllables to power her 'hidden pocket' spell. Stepping back she tries to change the spell essence to be about a pocket away from magic, rather than from normal senses.
Eren almost immediately realises that she's made a mistake. Her previous successes with the manipulation of spell essences had obviously given her false confidence. The essence of this spell feels completely different - she's almost tempted to say that it feels wrong.
But she doesn't have any time to ponder the whys and wherefores of it. Whatever she has done to the spell it's clearly not had the desired effect. Worse than that, it's apparently having the opposite effect, attracting the spectres attention rather than distracting it.
Pavel quickly works out what is going on. His eyes wide in alarm, Pavel recites a small protective incantation under his breath. "Not Me Sir", he says, backing away slightly from the spectres and sidling towards the prone man. Loosening the rope which holds his cloak closed, he bends down and starts binding the man's hands. "See?" he says.
Thankfully, Pavel's misdirection magic and quick thinking are enough to make the spectres pause, in spite of the bizarre... thing that Eren had plonked on his head. Trying not to panic, he concentrates on tying the hooded man up as securely as he can, while wondering what to do next.
The tall man still seems to be besieged by the spectres, but he is frighteningly close - Pavel could almost reach out and touch him. And Vey, who also seems to have escaped the ghostly entities not-so-tender ministrations for the moment, is staring at him with a look of icy fury on his face...
Eren really wants to find out exactly who the hooded man is, but she is also acutely aware of how easily the situation could change again, and there is no guarantee that another rescuer will come along, or that her captors will get so careless again. But before she leaves she wants to deal with Vey.
"Come on Pavel, let's go. But first..." She takes a couple of steps towards the others, stretches to her full height, and fixes her stare on Vey. Summoning her best 'Gerlant addressing the beast men' type of tone, she spits out: "You, Vey or whatever your name really is, you'd better stay away from me. You might be pretty slick, but I can still squish you like the insect that you are. I'd better not find you underfoot anymore."
Vey initially looks furious at this, but as his eyes flick to his companions - one prone on the floor, the other besieged by ghosts - the anger in his eyes is replaced by uncertainty.
Pavel doesn't even hear the girl. With a chilling, almost soulless stare at Vey, the boy takes up a position next to the prone man and holds his stare. He lifts his leg and stamps down as hard as he can on the man's midriff.
The hooded man groans and curls up, coughing. No longer stunned, but obviously winded, he tries to speak to Pavel, but only manages to gasp out: "You... will... pay... for... this!"
Vey shakes his head in disbelief, gulps nervously, then turns and walks quickly away.
"Cursed kids!"
The sound of the tall man's voice close behind him startles Pavel, who whirls round, half-expecting to see the man advancing towards him. Instead, he sees that the fellow has sunk to the ground, with his arms wrapped around his face, glaring out at him from between his fingers
Rather belatedly, Pavel realises that a number of spectral guardians are taking an interest in him again...
"C'mon Pavel, let's get you out of here" Eren quickly thinks about where the nearest exit is, and can they get Pavel out of there without attracting attention, should the spectral guardians follow the the splasher boy.
~oOo~
Kiki feels a chill that has little to do with her current state of undress. So far everything she has done could be taken as doing what she was meant to by Stockfish. That was about to change, but she has made her choice for better or worse.
"May I mount?" she asks and when the unicorn agrees with a gesture she quickly gets on. With her heart pounding in her breast fit to burst she confirms "OK I am holding on tight".
Watching Stockfish, she waits for the Unicorn to act.
Almost immediately, the unicorn rears up and wheels around. Kiki grips it tightly with her knees and hastily grabs a double handful of its mane.
As it heads for the edge of the grove, however, she spots Tom hiding near its intended exit and hears Stockfish shouting out "Now!". As the unicorn begins to accelerate, she can see the hunter readying something - it looks like a bundle of ropes or some kind of net - and hears Stockfish muttering an incantation.
Kiki struggles to remain calm in the mist of all this excitement. Oh she had forgotten how much fun the woods could be! But for now she focuses on the hunter. She had seen similar nets used by the men in her village before and knows how they are normally used. So now she try's and predicts the instant he plans to throw so she can pass on a warning.
There his neck muscles are bunching as he tenses up before his throw. "Jump!" she calls to her new friend.
The unicorn, which had apparently failed to notice the concealed hunter, instinctively obeys her command, leaping high into the air. The wily hunter had obviously anticipated his prey, however, because he throws the net with calm precision so that the unicorn's evasive measure only serves to entangle it more thoroughly. Kiki gasps when the net closes around her, as dozens of sharp hooks snag painfully on her bare flesh.
Enraged, the unicorn wheels round and tries to gore the hunter with its horn, but this only seems to make matters worse. Tom calmly evades the desperate lunge and moves towards a nearby tree, to which he has already tethered the net. The unicorn snorts angrily and watches the hunter warily as it considers its next move.
Her heart pounding, Kiki desperately tries to work out what she can do to help. Craning her head round to look at Stockfish, she is momentarily relieved to see that the wizard's attention is elsewhere, but then she sees him carefully removing something from the bag - the same magically-capacious bag, she suddenly recalls, that he'd brought with him on the field trip.
The object that he is retrieving is a huge glass jar with a reinforced lid. With growing horror, Kiki peers at the jar's contents. Whirring around within it, in a frenzy of viloent motion, are several small winged creatures...
~oOo~
Eren weighs up their immediate options: head back the way she'd come, through the garden to the Library; keep going the way they were going, to the back gate; or head back along the main corridor towards the College's main entrance. There would always be the risk of incurring some master's wrath if they took the garden route and the back gate exit might be locked - it isn't intended for student use.
Then there's the question of where to go. With a chill, Eren remembers one of the men talking about someone who'd been watching her - a 'spotter' he called him - who'd sent a 'runner' to tell them that she was coming. How did she know that there weren't other people waiting and watching for here? And the master that they'd encountered in the corridor - Hannigan - he'd not merely recognised the hooded man, he'd deferred to him - no, more than that - he'd seemed genuinely afraid of him.
And then there was Pavel - how had he known that she was in trouble? Or was it just an extraordinary piece of luck that he turned up when he did?
Pavel, meanwhile is wondering whether he should tell Eren about what Carrick had said. His sponsor had said he thought the girl might be in danger and he'd been proved right. He'd also ordered Pavel to be in his office "without fail" at the start of the second quarter this evening. The question was, what was he going to do until then?
"Which way?" Pavel asks, warily backing away from the shadowy forms, "I need to talk to you," he says. "I think Vey is up to something."
"This way!" says Eren, heading off a briskly as she can, in her somewhat battered and hindered condition. She aims for the most open and public spaces: namely the main corridor to the front door. Once they are away from Vey and the men she whispers "First lets get you out of here, before the guardians get you, then we can talk."
In her mind she debates the merit of seeking out a church, versus just finding some busy area in low town where they can mix with the crowds. But Pavel seems to have some clue of what is going on, so maybe it would be best to let him take the lead?
For the moment, though, Pavel seems temporarily lost in thought, so Eren leads him out of the college. They encounter a couple of other students and one master on their way to the exit, but nobody pays them any attention.
Given how much has happened to her in the last couple days, Eren muses, it's not suprrising that she's at a loss what to do next.
First, on Fireday, she had encountered a tortured and magically-abused fugitive in the Graveen Marshes, who claimed that many of her masters were evil sorcerers. Then yesterday, while conducting an investigation for the cartographer Salazari, she and Kiki had discovered a scary hidden room beneath the college, which lent credence to this accusation. They'd also found another room that pointed to secret collaboration between the different schools in Syran, which she was itching to investigate further. And today she had found herself receiving the unwelcome attention of an apparent conspiracy, involving at least one of the Imperial College masters, the unknown adept who'd tried to abduct her, his unsavoury accomplice and a number of his minions, and - of all unlikely people! - one of her fellow students, Vey.
Recalling these events, two things immediately occur to her. First, that she and Kiki were supposed to be reporting back to Salazari this afternoon to tell him what they'd discovered while investigating his 'anomaly' last night. Second, that Kiki might also be in danger if the fugitive's dire warnings about sorcerers was true...
Before long, she realizes that Pavel is heading for the docks, apparently in a daze and apparently on instinct. She is surprised to see how many of the people in the quarter seem to know the boy, offering genuinely warm greetings to which the boy responds in his friendly, but strangely cold fashion. If anything, the boy seems to the girl like some iridescently beautiful, but lifeless, fish which has landed up on a market stall. Before she knows it, Eren is sat with Pavel in a dockside tavern which does, indeed, smell of fish, and is given a wholesome-looking stew.
Pavel eventually speaks to Eren rather than concentrating on the vague space behind her. "Erentona," he says gravely. "There is something very wrong going on and that Vey is involved in it all."
Rarely has Eren heard anything so blindingly obvious presented as if something new.
Eren interjects "Yah, I know what you mean--but I don't know what they want with my orb!"
"I don't know anything about an orb," Pavel says dismissively, "but I was supposed to find out who told who about the man in the marshes. Who did you tell?" he asks her point blank.
Eren feels hurt that Pavel has forgotten about her prize from the disputation, but then again she's used to people ignoring her accomplishments so she shoves away the disappointment to answer the question: "I only told Kiki. I don't think she would have told anyone else, but I felt I had to tell her because Master Stockfish seemed so interested in her, but you remember what that man in the swamp said about Master Stockfish."
After a short pause, she adds "I tried to be careful that nobody else would hear, but I guess I can't be positive."
"So either your friend told someone or that Vey did. And Vey is obviously the strongest candidate. So who were those men? Any idea?"
"No. When you arrived and helped all of a sudden, I thought maybe you knew what was going on and could tell me." After a moment's consideration she adds "But it would be illogical to regret not investigating more at the time, we were there and knew the dangers, and made the decision that seemed best at the time."
"The hooded man is a mage of some degree, but I think not from Imperial College. He cast a spell on me in the garden, oh, you don't know about that part... here, I'd best tell you about everything that happened since I got back to the college."
Using all her good memory and ability to focus, Eren recounts the events in excruciating detail.
As she does so, it finally dawns on her that she's been labouring under a misapprehension. Her would-be abductors hadn't been remotely interested in her orb: it was definitely her that they were after. And from what Pavel has said, it now seemed likely that it was because they thought she could tell them more about the fugitive. It also seems likely that Vey had been responsible for passing on the information about the fugitive. She hadn't been able to figure out what his relationship was with the two men, but she was left with the distinct impression that his connection was with the tall man, rather than the hooded man.
The question was, why did they want with *her*, if Vey was already on their side? Couldn't he tell them everything they wanted to know about the fugitive?
Pavel's ears prick up when Eren describes the spell that the hooded man had used on her. He remembers one of the in-crowders mentioning a spell that sounded similar - which was unusual enough in itself - and recalls that the boy in question was a gloomer. The inky stuff sounded like it might conceivably be something that fit with the School of Tenebrous Wisdom's darkness obsession - which could imply that the hooded man is an adept from that school.
"Well," says Pavel, "I've got to report all this to one of the Masters later on. In the meantime, I think you should stay somewhere safe, since it seems these people are after you. Here is probably one of the safest spoots in town," he indicates the dockside inn.
With a sinking feeling Eren realizes that she doesn't have more than the slightest coin actually with her, the rest of her small small wealth is in the St. Ussary lock box at the college, for safe keeping. She supposes maybe she could borrow the money from Pavel? She looks around the inn, it is not so fancy....still she is not quite sure what things cost, and if her entire stash would cover the bill. What if she borrowed money, and couldn't pay it back? No, she couldn't do that!
"Ummm, actually, I have to go see Master, ah, a master. With Kiki. Together we should be safer I think?" This last a little dubiously. While Eren has great admiration for Kiki's optimism and easy way with people, Eren is not entirely sure how useful she'd be dealing with attacks like the one she just witnessed.
Suddenly her face collapses. "Oh, my staff, it must still be in the garden! I have to go back and get it, else it will be found and taken, and if I claim it I have to admit I was in the garden which I shouldn't have been and I don't know when I could get another and I'd be ever so much safer with it! Do you have some time still, that we could go get it, and then meet Kiki before you have to see your master?"
When Pavel confirms that it is not until early evening that he really needs to report to his Master, Eren all but drags him with her.
Although he doesn't say it in words, his dragging feet make it clear that he is not enthusiastic. Finally Eren admits "OK, maybe I shouldn't worry about my staff. I hate to lose it, not that I'm so good with it, but at least it is some protection. But after we escaped the college, going back isn't very logical, is it?" Then her face brightens "But we can still go and find Kiki together! Then I'll be safer with her, and I want to let her know about this anyway, and you will have lots of time to get to your master." With that she resolutely strides off towards the Scribbler's buildings.
By the time that Eren and Pavel have crossed the city again, it is approaching dusk. It takes them a while to find anyone at the School of the Sacred Image who has seen Kiki today, but they find a girl who had seen her leaving the academy with a boy from Imperial, around lunchtime.
"But I think she went to see Master Adhuc first," the scribbler girl tells them. "So perhaps he'll know where they were going."
The Master of Tutors is just leaving his office when they eventually find him. He is not at all happy to find a pair of external students wandering unaccompanied around the halls of his academy, but when they explain that they are looking for Kiki he rolls his eyes and sighs.
"I might have known," he says. "Nothing but trouble, that child. Well, you won't find her here. She's gone off on some tomfool field trip with that Stockfish character from *your* college," he tells them, looking pointedly at Eren. Then he frowns and adds: "Here, shouldn't you be with them too? All part of this joint teaching wotsit, isn't it? No? Ah well, no matter."
"What's that?" he snaps when they ask where Stockfish had been intending to take Kiki. "The letter last week said the field trip was to the Graveen Marshes, but if this is some other trip then I've no idea. Now kindly get out of my academy!"
Eren daren't go back to her college to find out if anyone else knows where Stockfish has gone, in case the place is still being watched. Fearing the worst for Kiki and uncertain where to turn, she once again puts her trust in Pavel when he insists on taking her with him to the Naval Academy. Perhaps his master Carrick will know what to do.
It's not until they are standing outside Carrick's office, Pavel having blagged dinner for both of them from the school kitchens, that Eren belatedly remembers her appointment with Salazari...
Pavel knocks on the door and waits. Silence. After a few moments he knocks again, but there's still no response. With a sick feeling in his stomach, he tries the door and finds it unlocked.
Stepping cautiously inside, he finds the room empty with nothing obviously amiss. His mind strays back to the events of the morning and he recalls Carrick's instructions and the sealed envelope that the master had given him in case something went wrong.
"If I'm not there and haven't contacted you by noon tomorrow," Carrick had told him. "Then you are to assume the worst. In that event - and only in that event - I want you to open this," he had continued, meaning the envelope. "And go to the person that I have named. Show them this," he had concluded, handing Pavel a small object. "And tell them everything."
Pavel doesn't hesitate for a moment, ignoring Eren's presence and pulling the envelope out from the folds in his robe. He breaks the seal and opens it.
It contains a single piece of paper, folded in half. On it Carrick has scrawled a single word - a name, evidently. But not one that Pavel recognises.
"Jayron?" he mutters. "Who in Hell's Jayron?"
Eren was about to mention going to see Salzari, but is distracted by what Pavel is doing.
"Jayron is one of our masters at Imperial," she says. "Exalian's master, in fact. Why?"
"Well we've to visit him," Pavel says, "Right now."
Eren looks at Pavel in shock: "You can't be serious!" She says. "You know how late it is, imagine if we get caught breaking curfew." Intently studying the planks of the floor she adds "and anyway, I have to go see Master Salazari now."
She blurts out quickly now that she's broached the subject "We need to go, I'm sure I can help you get there, and we shouldn't separate, and he needs to know that Kiki is missing, and I need to tell him about last night, and you can help with that too." Finally drawing a breath, she finishes "And we're probably safer with him. He seems to know a lot, but I don't think he's involved with anyone else much at all, so I'm pretty sure he's not in with Stockfish."
Pavel doesn't seem to be listening to half of what Eren is saying. Not consciously anyway. breaking curfew seems to be a matter of routine for the boy too. "We should get out now, because no-one ever leaves at this time. You say you've somewhere we can kill some time? Let's do that. It'll be easier to sneak in later on, rather than just after curfew."
"Come on." he says, seeming to know exactly where he needs to go.
~oOo~
"Oh God this is bad" thinks Kiki as she forces her breathing to slow.
The net with the hooks are the main problem so far. No easy and quick way to get this off, which is the whole point of these nets. On the other hand the Unicorn can heal its self {Animal Lore} even if she does cause it damage in the process of getting it off.
"Sorry this is going to hurt." Kiki whispers to the Unicorn. Be ready to run if it works. They won't touch me so don't stop if you lose me." Kiki adds with feeling, even as she figures just how wrong she has been about Stockfish and belatedly remembering Eren's warning.
Then, bolting out from her mind the pain she is about to cause, she hauls at the net to free the Unicorn.
The pain caused by the hooks tearing at her bare flesh is excruciating and the unicorn whinnies in alarm when it realises what she's doing, sending out a tangible wave of empathy as it realises the price that she is paying. Thankfully the barbs don't seem to inflict any real damage on the animal's much tougher hide and the net's entangling grip soon starts to loosen.
When the hunter realises what she is doing, he curses out loud and makes a desperate effort to secure his prey, hauling on the rope with all his might and throwing his own weight into the effort by using the tree as a pivot. The unicorn stands its ground, however, taking full advantage of its much greater strength and the greater freedom of movement that Kiki's brave action has afforded it. With a toss of its noble head, it turns the tables on the hunter, nearly pulling him off his feet.
Heedless of danger the unicorn hastens to to press home this momentary advantage, charging towards the hunter with its horn aimed straight at his heart. Tom tries desperately to scramble out of the way and narrowly avoids being impaled on the horn, but he cannot evade the charge altogether and ends up trampled into the mud beneath the mighty beast's hooves. Rearing up in triumph the unicorn prepares to deal its hated enemy a fatal blow.
Only then does the true peril of their situation become apparent. While the desperate struggle between hunter and beast had been unfolding, Stockfish had evidently not been idle. Hearing a loud buzzing sound, Kiki darts a fearful glance in the wizard's direction. The glass jar that she'd seen him holding earlier now stands unstoppered on the ground beside him and the master is looking towards them with an expression of triumph on his face. As she watches, he points a finger towards her in an imperious gesture and utters some incomprehensible command.
Whirring and chittering, a swarm of diminutive and vaguely humanoid creatures swoops towards her, their bat-like wings flapping furiously and their needle-sharp teeth bared as they cackle with unholy glee...
Kiki forces herself to look and then look again to uncover the creatures hidden colours.
"Gahh..."
Hoping her breakfast stays down she thinks quickly. Well they are magic nastiest but they have to act on the physical world to get to them. So best be elsewhere, if nothing else if they get out of crooked Stockfish's sight. It will be hard for him to send anything else after them in a hurry, and then it will just be the swarm to deal with. Anyway a Unicorn is still like most four legged grass eaters: if in doubt they want to run.
"Leave him, just run!" she urges the Unicorn
Thankfully, the unicorn heeds her advice and leaves the stricken hunter where he fell, turning instead to flee into the forest. Kiki is horrified to see the swarm of creatures moving rapidly towards them, especially when her arcane sight confirms her worst fears. They are not merely supernatural creatures, she realises: from the looks of their aura they hail from some hellish precinct of the Underworld! She feels a palpable wave of hopelessness washing over her as they draw nearer and immediately recognises that it emanates from the demons.
She has a few moments to contemplate the implications of this, then the unicorn begins to gallop like the wind, forcing her to cling on for dear life. Negotiating the dense forest is as natural as breathing for it, but it's not used to carrying a rider and is forced to moderate its pace to avoid losing her. Leaning forwards to lie almost flat on its back, Kiki shouts into her steed's ear.
"Fly, fly! There are demons on our tail! But don't lose hope - that's just their evil magic trying to convince you to give up!"
This information prompts the unicorn to put on an additional burst of speed, which initially seems to leave the swarm of tiny demons far behind, but as Kiki watches in horror, she sees them drawing near once again and hears their shrill cries of rage. Once again, a wave of hopelessness sweeps over her and she feels the unicorn's step falter. What vile magic is this, that attacks hope itself?
Kiki endeavours to ease the burden her light frame gives the unicorn. As she had seen farm boys do back home she eases into a better bare back riding position, using her insights to aid getting into the flow of the Unicorns stride. Then, as inspiration strikes, she starts to sing one of the songs of the Saints that inspires fighting off evil to bolster its sprits against the effects of the demons attack in a happy clear voice. As she thinks to herself that it just as well she made it to church before all this started.
With Kiki's encouraging song and her attempt to be less of a burden, the unicorn is able to maintain its pace, which means that more of the demons are left behind. Unfortunately there are still a significant number that remain within striking distance. And strike is what they now do.
Ignoring the rider and focussing on the steed, the little winged humanoids hurl themselves at the unicorn's flanks and try to sink their needle-sharp teeth into his flesh. Kiki wonders what they can possibly hope to achieve by this - surely the bite of these little creatures, although presumably painful, can't possibly hope to do any serious damage to the much larger unicorn? It's only when she feels the unicorn shiver feverishly and stumble that comprehension finally dawns.
"Poison!" she cries. "Their bite must be poisonous!"
The unicorn mournfully nickers its agreement.
Kiki thinks of trying to fight the demons but rejects the idea as it is taking most of her effort just to hang on. If she starts to slip she will just slow the Unicorn down...
No, it is the poison she must fight - but how can she do that while they flee for there lives. Well, the unicorn could heal itself, but it is rather busy at the moment. And although she can treat poisons it is a bit difficult at the gallop. Now wait - the only things she has on her are what she used to attract the Unicorn, but that included the tiny cup her mum had said was made out of Unicorn horn and Unicorn horn was good against poison. And of course the unicorn dung was good for healing if it was damage causing poison.
"Here - crunch this up and swallow this, it should help," Kiki says, putting the tiny ivory cup into the Unicorns mouth and then waiting while it complies. "Now don't ask just swallow this quick," she adds, and she puts the remains of the Unicorn dung into his mouth and hoping he doesn't balk at eating it. It might be magic and smell of flowers, but it still tastes of horse shit.
Kiki concentrates hard to activate the spell focus, while at the same time trying to manipulate the spell essence as she had been taught in her recent practical lessons. The result is not all that she was hoping for, but it quite obviously has some positive effect, drawing a grateful - if surprised - whinny from the unicorn. Now perilously close to fainting, Kiki smiles, happy that she could provide some help, however small.
They need help but who can help them out in the woods? Then the thought strikes Old Woods equals Dryads - one of those might help her Unicorn, though she is unsure of her own welcome as people round here have not been kind to the wood folk over the years. But the one around her hideaway was sometimes approachable.
"Find a Dryad or the elves - they will help against the demons!" she tells the Unicorn.
Her mount makes a snorting noise that sounds suspiciously like "Of course!", then gallops off in a new direction. It throws back its head and makes a strange call, which echoes through the forest and sends a shiver down Kiki's spine. She swears that she feels something respond in the forest, but suddenly her attention is focussed back on the unicorn, which has slowed to a near standstill and is breathing heavily. The poison, it seems, is threatening to overwhelm it.
Then, emerging from behind a tree, Kiki sees that a welcome ally has responded to the unicorn's call: a dryad. She frowns at the sight of Kiki, but smiles tenderly at the unicorn and speaks to it in a language that the apprentice doesn't understand. The unicorn's response is weak, but within a few seconds the demons have arrived and their predicament becomes all too clear to the dryad...
Kiki slides off the unicorns back, with a sigh of relief, to free the him to act. Thinking back to the church sermons she remembers that Demons in the real world can be usually be hurt by even mundane item when driven by a pure heart.
She bobs respectfully to the Dryad then grab a fallen branch before lunching herself at the Demons driven more by adrenalin than strength.
Her desperate tactic has the desired effect, but not the outcome she was hoping for. The demons all gleefully descend upon her, biting at her unprotected flesh in a terrifying feeding frenzy. Her branch flails ineffectually, missing the fast-flying demons and serving only to exhaust her, but at least her opponents are too busy with her to attack the unicorn. Almost immediately, however, Kiki feels their insidious poison overwhelming her, making it impossible for her to move and increasingly hard to breathe. Moments later, she slumps to the ground and blacks out.
When consciousness returns, Kiki realises that the unicorn is nudging her gently. She is still too weak to stand and feels dizzying pain from the dozens of bites that the demons inflicted upon her, but the poison no longer seems to be affecting her.
"You healed me!" she whispers wonderingly. The unicorn nods. "But what about the demons?"
The noble beast snorts and directs her gaze to the aerial combat that is still going on all around them. At first, Kiki thinks that the demons must have gone mad, because they are all flying about wildly, striking out around themselves and squealing with fury. Then she comprehends what she's seeing - or rather not seeing.
"Sprites," she breathes. "The dryad set her sprites on them!"
The tiny sprites are puny individually, but they outnumber the demons and their invisibility gives them a crucial advantage. As the apprentice and the unicorn watch, the demons fall one by one to the ground, either overwhelmed by their unseen opponents or exhausted by their own futile attempts to fight the sprites.
Kiki smiles, trying not to wince. "We won," she whispers. I can't believe it, but we actually won!"
"Oh, let's not be too hasty, shall we?" a horribly familiar voice says from nearby.
Stockfish!
"You didn't forget about me, did you?" he says, flashing his sickening smile. "How remiss of you..."
Raising his hands, the wizard begins to mutter a spell...
~oOo~
The academy halls are quiet and there's no-one to challenge them, so Pavel and Eren are able to sneak out with ease.
Eren follows Pavel for now, then gets rather insistent about following the "right" route to Salazari's place.
Pavel seems a little reluctant to trek all the way over to Newmarket piazza, but doesn't seem inclined to argue with her. Eren belatedly recalls that he had only followed part of the route, starting at the 'boneyard', so he won't be familiar with the first part.
Once they have arrived at the fountain and started to follow Salazari's prescribed route along Five Bells, however, Pavel suddenly gains an insight as to why the girl had been so insistent. The route seems to nudge something in an obscure corner of his memory, throwing up maddeningly brief flashes of a mysterious pattern in his mind's eye. After struggling up a wall with Eren's help and then stumbling along a narrow back-alley to reach the cemetery, something seems to slot into place in his mind. Now he can summon up the elusive pattern and see it for what it is: a kind of a map.
Pavel follows Eren silently, absorbed in thought, as he turns the strange pattern around in his head and ponders its significance. Walking through the wall between the lions is much easier than the first time they'd attempted it, as both Eren and Pavel can see the portal now. Before long they are knocking on Salazari's door.
After a few moments, the cartographer opens the door. He frowns at Eren.
"You, young lady are late," he tells her. "And..."
He stops, having noticed Pavel, and his frown turns to a scowl.
"And you are the little miscreant that wrecked my book! What are you doing here?" he demands. "And where is Kiki?"
"Killing time," says Pavel, ignoring the man's anger and, feeling a bit tired, leaving Eren to explain.
While Pavel had been lost in thoughts of his own, Eren had been mulling over how to explain things to the cartographer. She felt bad for bringing Pavel back, and for not showing up at the appointed time, but she was pretty sure that these were the right things to have done. After looking at it one way and another, she decides that if they are to trust him at all, it is illogical to hide any of what happened from him. She'll simply have to explain it all.
The Master's remarks are about what she expected, so she is ready to explain. "Sir, a lot has happened since yesterday evening. We have things to tell you from last night's exploration sure enough, interesting things I think, and I want to help understand them more. But things have happened today that seem pretty bad. I hope you can help us make some sense of them, and maybe help us find Kiki, I'm worried that she is in trouble. This is going to take a little while, you might want to sit down."
Salazari glares at her, looking like he's about to take her to task, and darts a couple of angry glances at Pavel, but after a significant pause he sighs and beckons the two apprentices inside.
"Very well," he says. "Come upstairs and tell me everything. Then we'll see if I can help. I'm not making any promises, mind..."
Eren takes a moment to settle into a more comfortable stance and to calm her breathing, then continues. "I don't remember if we told you or not, but we are part of an experiment in joint teaching between the colleges. Kiki, Pavel, myself, and some others. A few days ago we had an expedition to the swamps, down the lake-shore a ways. While we were there Pavel, myself, another girl from Naval College, and another imperial boy, called Vey, met this ragged man. His body was beaten, he was raving and desperate, and when I used symbolic vision, it was like his soul was full of holes. He accused the colleges of harboring many sorcerers, and specifically named Master Stockfish, the master who took us on that hike. We finally agreed to let him go, and not tell anyone about him."
Continuing with her explanation, she goes on: "Stockfish seemed especially interested in Kiki, which worried me. So the next day I warned her about him, but I didn't give her all the details. The next interesting thing that happened, for me, was coming to see you yesterday." She looks at Pavel, and asks him to add anything relevent from his perspective that had happened before then.
The naval college apprentice just shrugs.
Then Eren summarizes the expedition the previous evening, and today's attack. Finishing "Once we got out of the college, we went to look Kiki, but they said she had gone off on some trip, with Master Stockfish! But they didn't even know where. Then we went to look for Pavel's master, but he wasn't there. There is another master we want to talk to, but I knew I was already late, and I wanted to tell you about what we found last night, and I wondered if you would be able to help locate Kiki somehow, so I said we should come here first."
After a shaky start, Salazari has listened to Eren's long and occasionally jumbled account of the apprentices' experiences over the last few days with growing interest. By the time she concludes, he is practically sitting on the edge of his seat.
"Let me stop you there, Eren," he says. "While I am quite understandably itching to know what you and Kiki found on your mission last night, I can see that your present predicament must take precedence. Before we talk about Kiki and her whereabouts, however, let me first confirm two things with you."
He holds up a long finger.
"Firstly, your account of today's events suggests to me that you now believe the account of this 'ragged man' that you encountered in the marshes. Moreover, you believe that this 'sorcerous conspiracy' both found out about your encounter with the man in the marshes - presumably from this Vey person - and attempted to abduct you. From the grounds of your College, no less! Is that an accurate assessment?"
When Eren nods, the cartographer holds up a second finger
"Secondly," he continues, turning to Pavel. "And this question is for you, boy. Eren said that your master "wasn't there" when you went to speak to him about this. Am I to understand that you believe your master has also fallen victim to this sorcerous conspiracy? And that his disappearance is in some way connected to the message you delivered from this 'ragged man'?"
Pavel sees no particular reason to cater to his sponsor's request for secrecy. In fact, Pavel barely remembers the master's tone when he received the task. "Oh, he probably has," he says, "and it's definitely connected to the man in the swamp."
If anything, the boy is curious as to the identity of the mn who knows his father; he looks keenly at Salazari's face.
Salazari regards him coolly.
"I see," he says. "So we are working with the assumption that anyone who comes into contact with this fugitive in the marshes, or with the message that you carried back from him, is liable to be perceived as a threat by these conspirators," he observes. "We know that they have tried to abduct Eren. We suspect that they have abducted your master, Pavel - sorry, you said he was your sponsor, didn't you? We also suspect that this Stockfish fellow from Imperial College is a part of the conspiracy, and that he has abducted Kiki. Anyone else?"
Pavel points out that the Bastian, the person to whom he had delivered the fugitive's message, has also been abducted. Then something else occurs to him.
"Merry," he says out loud, wrestling with an unfamiliar emotion.
"What's that boy?" asks Salazari.
"Merry," Pavel repeats "She's another Naval apprentice who was with us when we met the fugitive. I was just wondering whether Carrick - that's my sponsor - managed to warn her."
"Please tell me that's everyone," Salazari says, with a heavy sigh. "Well, apart from this Vey boy, who seems to be part of - or at least connected to - the conspiracy. It is? Good..."
"Now, if we're lucky," he says, leaning forward and looking at them intently. "Then the hidden route that you followed to gain entrance to my tower will have thrown the conspirators off your scent for a bit. Of course, if we're unlucky then you may just have added me to the list of people that these conspirators regard as a threat," he adds, looking more than a little worried by this prospect. "But no matter - what's done is done. The question is: what are you going to do next?"
"I may be able to help you to find Kiki," he remarks, turning to Eren and explaining: "The spell that I cast on you both last night may have a residual effect." He frowns and pauses. "But what do you propose to do if we can locate her? I hope you weren't expecting me to rush to her rescue," he adds. "I'm afraid I'm not really one for heroics...
"But you mentioned another master that you were going to see. Do you think that he will help you? How do you know that you can trust him?" He smiles suddenly. "How do you know that you can trust me, for that matter? Some people call me a sorcerer..."
Eren looks alarmed at the thought that they could have led trouble here. But she doesn't dare interrupt, no matter how much she wants to say "Surely you are strong enough to keep them away."
When he asks how they can trust him, it is at first a welcome distraction, as she's already thought this one out. "We can't be sure about you being a sorcerer, but if you were part of this group, it would have made no sense for them to risk capturing me in the middle of the day at the college, instead of waiting to catch me here, or have you send me right into their arms somewhere safe."
Eren feels smug about having already thought this one through, until she realizes the hole in her own reasoning. More slowly she adds "That is, unless they didn't know we were seeing you, so didn't bother to mention it." Then she rallies when she remembers her other line of reasoning on the subject "But also, you just don't seem interested enough in _that_ sort of thing. And while you might be, ummm, a bit abrupt, you've never felt like trouble."
"I should probably consider seeing my master too, I think I'd trust him, but I'd rather not go running to him until I have something more specific than what we know now."
"As for this other master, ummm, actually Pavel, I never did ask you about that...."
"Who? Jayron? I don't know anything about the man," Pavel says, "But I suspect he thinks he knows an awful lot, like all the other masters do.
"And I don't trust any of these Masters," he looks pointedly at Salazari, "or Sorcerors, or what have you. But I may as well see what they're up to so I know who to keep away from."
Salazari glares at him. "If you don't know anything about this Jayron," he asks, through clenched teeth. "Why exactly are you planning to go and see him?"
"Because Carrick said to." Pavel retorts as if Salazari were the most dimwitted fellow in Syran.
The cartographer sighs and rolls his eyes heavenwards.
"Give me strength!" he exclaims. "This is like getting blood out of a stone! So your sponsor told you to go and see this man before he vanished. And I'm guessing that this Jayron is supposed to help you in Carrick's absence? Yes? Good. So your trust of this other master is based upon the unqualified commendation of your sponsor. Not the best basis for trust, but I suppose it will have to do under the circumstances."
Salazari sighs heavily and seems lost in deep concentration. At length, he sighs again and regards the two apprentices with a pained expression on his face.
"No doubt I'm going to regret this, but... I will do what I can to help you. Oh, don't get carried away, my girl," he cautions when Eren starts to smile with relief. "I told you - I'm not much for heroics. But I can at least try to locate Kiki for you and help you to contact this Jayron fellow - hopefully, without attracting the singularly unwelcome attentions of your enemies."
"But before I do that, Eren, I want to know exactly what you and Kiki found last night. I was able to follow your progress and analyse some of the trajectories and nodes that you uncovered in the anomaly, but I cannot interpret that data without knowing what you found on the ground. Even more troubling, I am now sensing a hidden connection between the anomaly and your present predicament..."
Eren describes the events of the previous evening in as much detail as she can remember, clarifying specific points of detail in response to Salazari's questions
"It is as I feared," he comments when Eren finishes her account. "It seems likely that there is a link between the two chambers that you found and the conspiracy that now threatens you. That inscription sounds suspiciously like a Hell-portal to me, which certainly has no place in a pious wizard's studies. And this other room, apparently dedicated to cooperation between schools... you said that your sorcerous conspirators seemed to be drawn from at least two different schools, yes?"
Then his face falls. "Ah - but you said that the murals showed largely benign instances of cooperation, didn't you?"
Eren nods. "At least, that's what I thought they showed," she qualifies.
Salazari pauses, massaging his temples.
"Parallels, parallels, parallels," he mutters. "But we must not leap to conclusions! The portal inscription may be the work of a sorcerer with an unhealthy interest in the Underworld, but that does not necessarily mean that he - or she - is one of your conspirators. And this mural room seems to be concerned with cooperation between the schools, but that does not mean that such collaborators will always have a benign or unselfish intent."
"What else?" he asks, looking at each of them in turn. "Are we dealing with one secret organisation or many? You said that the man in the marshes spoke of 'potential allies'. And that girl - Imogen, was it? Did she stumble upon you by chance, or was she spying on you, d'you think?"
"Bah!" he exclaims, standing up suddenly. "There are too many hidden nodes and trajectories in this macrostructure. I need to...
He walks quickly over to a workbench and picks up a pencil. The two apprentices follow, curious to see what the cartographer is doing. Taking a large piece of paper, he first draws a number of widely-spaced boxes and circles, labelling them with the names of the people or groups that they have mentioned, then draws lines between these boxes. He continues in this vein, rapidly covering the paper with scribbles.
The result is a confusing mess, which is almost impossible to follow, but Salazari picks up a fresh sheet of paper and quickly re-draws it, having apparently re-configured and rationalised the entire diagram in his head. Pavel watches in fascination, feeling a strange prickling at the back of his mind.
"Well?" the cartographer says, at length. "Am I missing anything? Some of these," he says, gesturing at the circles that he is using to represent groups or shared goals. "May be the same thing, but we cannot be sure. But are there any more nodes or connections that you haven't mentioned?"
Eren can't help but feel that maybe there is something to the map that should seem familiar, but she pushes that feeling aside to examine later.* For now she looks through the relationships, concentrating hard.
Finally she allows "Well, there is at least one more thing, the joint teaching program, you know about that, right? And Father Emoliant seems to be sort of organizing that, and the classroom sessions are held at Imperial. Umm, do you know Father Emoliant? He lectured us long and hard about the perils of Sorcery, so I suppose he's not part of this, but he's not exactly the sort of liturgist that makes you feel comfortable confessing your problems."
Salazari is nodding and scribbling new boxes and lines. "Can you tell me which of the other apprentices are part of this joint teaching thing?" he asks.
Looking some more, she adds "And what about you, aren't you a link in all of this? Then there were the other students in the fray in the graveyard the first time we came here, but that would be a pretty weak connection... Wait, that doesn't make sense to include people with only indirect links, or you'd never be able to stop drawing this, would you?"
"Your suggestion that I include myself in the map is interesting" the cartographer says. "Not something that I'm in the habit of doing, but I think there's some merit in it. As for weak connections... well, we shouldn't simply rule them out, because we are looking for unknown links here, but we do need to have some criteria for restricting the number of connections at this stage. So let's stick to connections that we know or suspect are relevant. Although, given that we are talking about a secret conspiracy here, 'relevant' might include recent events that you didn't understand. Or anything else that might explain why our putative conspirators tried to abduct you."
"Um, well in that case we should include my Orb," Eren puts in, a little hesitantly. "The headmaster gave it to me for winning the Disputation, but my master told me that he was given it as a gift and might have upset the people who gave it to him. The orb was what I originally thought the two men who tried to abduct me were after this afternoon. I'm fairly sure they weren't now, but someone did try to steal it from my room before. Oh, and someone tripped me in the corridor this afternoon then ran off. Although that may have been the same person whose been playing practical 'jokes' on me for months..."
Salazari asks Eren to explain about both the Orb and the malicious practical joker. As she does so, he starts adding to the existing diagram again, then stops, takes a fresh piece of paper and starts to re-draw the diagram in a new configuration.
"Anything else?" he asks.
"Well," says Pavel, feeling a little foolish at last, "There's Merry. Not sure where she fits in."
Salazari points to a section of the paper and Pavel sees that the cartographer has already included Merry in his diagram.
"Uh, well, then what about the people who abducted Bastian?" the apprentice says, feeling a bit sheepish. "We don't really know who they were, but they must fit into the map somewhere..."
Salazari nods. "A very good point," he says, adding a new item. "I'm also adding the anomaly and the two rooms that you found, Eren," he continues. "And I think we can also include the unknown adept who was responsible for inscribing the hell gate."
He stares at the new diagram intently, frowning with obvious concentration.
"Tell me," he says after a few minutes. "Can either of you sense any missing connections if you look at this using the representational envisioning technique?" When they both look blank he rolls his eyes. "Oh, of course, your schools have a different term for it, don't they? Er... symbolic sight, is it? Or essence perception?"
"Symbolic Sight" mutters Eren, but she is already focussed on the diagram. First she tries to look at the shape of it, are the lines representing something? Then she shakes her head, realizing that is illogical, the way it is drawn has to be fairly random. The real nature of it has to be deeper.
"Do you mind if I pull up a chair, this might take a bit?" she asks, but matches actions to words without really waiting for a response. More comfortably settled, she drops herself deeper into her symbolic Sight.
First she forces herself to divorce her mind from the specific layout, letting the meaning soak in without trying to parse it in familiar ways, a talent she developed in order to read upside down.
Then she lets her mind drift over the runes they've studied, filling them into the diagram in her head when they seem a sure fit, such as the sorcery rune along the line to the ragged man, and the college runes, and then she feels for the less certain associations.
Finally, when her mind is as full as she can manage, she stops trying to push sense onto it, and just gazes, holding it in her head, waiting to see what can come to her. From experience she knows that her memories of node map dreams or other realizations just take time, and she's determined to keep herself focused for as long as it takes to let those associations come to the fore.
As her symbolic sight gradually resolves into sharper focus, she sees a new side to the map and realises that the drawing is not as random and arbitrary as she had first imagined. This is no mere doodle - the cartographer is in the process of casting some kind of spell that involves the act of drawing as a key element. Is this normal for Iconographers, she wonders?
Superimposed over the map she can now see a fine tracery of magical lines of force, mostly corresponding to ink marks on the paper, but representing a much richer spectrum of information that the physical drawing could never hope to match. It is as if the essential map has a couple of extra dimensions, that make her head hurt when she tries to examine them too closely. Moving her head from side to side, she watches how the map changes and notices two interesting phenomena.
Firstly, she sees what she can only describe as an attraction between the two nodes in the top left corner, which to her mind can only imply some kind of connection. Secondly, and more mysteriously, she sees three faint, shadowy shapes hovering between Carrick, Bastian and the Ragged Man. When she describes these observations to Salazari he smiles broadly.
"Very good, Eren!" he says. "I hadn't noticed either of those..."
Pavel finds himself quite engrossed and barely takes the time to reflect that his head is not hurting in the least. indeed, it may be that the latter helps explain the former. At one point, when Salazari appears to be floundering, the boy even casts a little cantrip to assist.
At one point, he mentions the obvious connection which hasn't appeared on the map, the link between the Glassmaker's Guild and his master Carrick, plus the Doctor Bastian. "Since it's all about glass," he mumbles, repeating a comon Syran phrase.
"It's all got to do with light and shade, hasn't it?" he finally says, looking up brightly, as if he weren't the troubled soul he appears to be, but a normal child.
Salazari frowns. "All about glass?" he says. "I don't follow your reasoning. Granted, the link with the Glassmakers Guild is interesting, but how can you be sure that it's significant? And what does that have to do with light and shade?"
Pavel opens his mouth to respond, but then realises that he can't put his intuition into words. Frustrated, he wracks his brain for a way to show the others what he means, but nothing presents itself. Then his eyes alight on the pouch around Eren's neck.
"Here, can I look at this orb of yours?" he asks. "I think it might help..."
With only a little bit of nervousness, Eren opens the pouch containing the orb. But she warns "I wouldn't touch it, my master says it is attuned to me, with some sort of defensive spell. Ummm, the defensive spell is kind of impressive."
Pavel nods. "OK, just put it down here then," he says, pointing at the workbench.
Eren does as he asks and watches as the Naval College apprentice studies it closely, at one point holding his hands as close to it as he dares. Salazari watches silently, apparently scrutinising the orb himself.
"I... I think its made of water!" Pavel says, wonderingly, after examining it for several minutes. "Do you think that's another connection with Carrick? Maybe Bastian made this! And Carrick helped him..."
Salazari shakes his head. "Unless I'm very much mistaken, this orb has no water connection. I think you're starting to see connections where there are none - it's a common error with this sort of working, But you're obviously thinking along the right lines. Perhaps you should clear your head and then try again."
"Well what is it made of then?" says Pavel with irritation. He is obviously referring not to the glass of the orb itself but to the charge it possesses, for he holds his hands near to the orb once again, near enough that it crackles and threatens to discharge. This time he uses his little finger, hooking it to pull off, so it seems, some of the magical energy. He places this directly on the map, where the orb is described, and then uses the same little finger to push at the energy, if energy there is, into the runnels where the pen scratched the parchment.
"What in the Hells do you think you're doing, boy!" Salazari splutters. "You can't just toy around with magic like that you have to... to..."
He breaks off, staring open-mouthed at the map.
At first, Eren can't see what has changed. Then she sees the subtle difference that the cartographer, who is obviously more attuned to the nuances of the spell, must have noticed. The web of connections is unchanged, but there is now a subtle flow of energy evident along the individual lines, looking like the currents of a river. She can't really imagine what the significance of this might be, but it apparently means something to Salazari.
"Of course, of course," he is muttering to himself. "They are vectors, not merely lines between two entities. And this," he says, gesturing at the orb. "Must be an essence source of some kind. But what kind? And how did you..." he adds, glancing at Pavel. He shakes his head. "No matter, I'd better concentrate on the job at hand and ponder those questions later. But... thank you. Thank you both. Your insights have been, ah... surprisingly illuminating. Now please be quiet while I complete the working."
The two apprentices are growing restless by the time Salazari eventually breaks his concentration.
"Well," he says, with a heavy sigh. "I had hoped for more, but..." He indicates the two areas that Eren had drawn to his attention. "As you noticed, Eren, I am detecting evidence of a strong connection between the people who abducted Bastian and the Order of Arkat Liberator. If we add that link in like so," he continues, drawing the line on the paper that simultaneously manifests itself as a glowing connection on the arcane map. "Then we shall see whether young Pavel's trick with the orb can show us anything else..."
Even as he says this, the subtle currents that seem to be flowing around the map begin to change and new elements are spontaneously formed, branching off the existing nodes. Salazari grins broadly, like a child with a new toy, and pats Pavel on the back. He points out the group of three interlinked circles that have now appeared on the arcane version of the map. The Ragged Man is connected to one circle, while Bastian and Carrick are connected to another.
As Salazari inks in these new additions on the paper, Pavel is suddenly reminded of something by the arrangement of the three circles. Taking the metal disk that Carrick had given him out of his pocket he holds it out for the others to see.
"Carrick told me to show this to Jayron," he explains. "And to tell him everything. But he also told me not to show it to anybody else unless I had to. Do you think this is connected with these three groups?"
"Almost certainly," the cartographer observes. He examines the engraving on the disk: a circle enclosing a geometric design composed of three other circles, which looks something like a clover leaf. "Presumably this means that we should also draw a connection from Jayron to this unknown group," he muses. "If nothing else, it would appear that Carrick expected him to know the significance of the symbol..."
"Now then," he continues. "We still have many questions, but I think it is clear that this Master Jayron may have some of the answers. The immediate question is: what do you want to do now? My offer stands: I will try to locate Kiki and to help you to contact Jayron. But it's getting late and I can see that you are both tired. Perhaps this is best left until morning?"
Eren and Pavel realise that he is right: they both feel bone tired all of a sudden. Evidently their contribution to his spell has taken its toll. On the other hand, Eren is anxoius about Kiki and Pavel is worried what might happen to Carrick if they delay...
"I'm not sure that I'd sleep well right now. I am tired, but I'd not feel safe in my room. Maybe we should go talk to master Jayron? I'm sure we can get into Imperial, and maybe he should know sooner rather than later, if he's going to do anything? "
"Pavel, do you think it would be safe enough for the two of us to go back to Imperial and talk to him? While Master Salazari tried to figure out more where Kiki might be? Or," she adds in a sudden burst of inspiration, "where Master Stockfish is, if that would be any easier. We can't be sure that they are together, but they might be still."
"Of course," says Pavel brusquely, his face flushed with achievement but his tone altogether different. "Let us go." The boy bows to Salazari formally, "Master..."
The cartographer acknowledges his courtesy with a nod, then turns to Eren.
"Yes, I think it would be best if you left me alone to try to locate Kiki. But I can help you to return to your college first - or rather, I can help you to avoid prying eyes on your way there. Now where did I put that cursed..." he mutters, walking over to a cabinet and leafing through a stack of papers. "Ah, here it is." He hands Eren a folded map. "This only covers the northern-eastern quarter of the city, but that should be all you need. It shows all of the backstreet routes that I've identified, which should enable you to travel from here to Imperial without using the main arteries. There's even," he adds, opening up the map and indicating a section. "A little-known route across The Narrows that you can use to get between Newmarket and Eastgate without using the Eastway bridge."
Salazari looks rather pleased with himself, but as he happily points out some possible routes on his map, his face suddenly falls.
"It just occurred to me," he says. "Travelling by back alleys at this time of night probably isn't the safest thing to do, is it? But I can't see how else you can avoid being spotted by the people who tried to abduct you before..."
"I have a nightstick," Pavel says, "And I know how to use it." The boy loosens his club and pulls his cloak back to make it visible. "Come Eren."
Pavel takes the map with a nod and heads for the staircase. Seeing Eren hesitate slightly, he quickly casts one of his school spells to instil courage in the girl.
Eren hesitates, then asks Salazari: "By any chance would you have a spare staff around - mine got left in the gardens back at college when I was siezed."
"Yes, I think I have one somewhere," the cartographer tells her. "But I'd like it back!"
Eren gratefully takes the staff, and says "I'll take care of it, really I will." Inside she feels a sinking sensation, sure that now something will happen to the staff. She'd like to have focuses for her petty magic, but with an inward sigh concludes that she just can't take the time to prepare them now. Then Pavel's spell takes effect, and she feels more prepared to go and face this as she is.
"I agree, back alleys are better. Rather deal with random trouble than someone who is expecting us." Two are much safer than one for travel at night, at least, and we aren't tiny like Kiki, which should help too. But let's take a moment to memorize the route; that way nobody sees us trying to read a map in the dark, we don't need to attract that sort of attention!"
"Good luck," says Salazari. "And come back here as soon as you know more. Oh, and now that you have both followed the entrance route a couple of time, you should be able to pass through the gate between the lions without having to perform the preceding steps. Which will also reduce the risk that someone following you could find the way in as well..."
~oOo~
Kiki quickly gets over the shock of seeing the wizard she thought they had left miles behind. Too drained to do anything herself she still has her most potent weapon: her mind.
"Bugs put bugs in his mouth, stop the spell," she whispers urgently to the Dryad.
Then in desperation she prays to her god for deliverance.
"Oh painter of the grand canvas deliver us from evil. Expose what is hidden and confound the liar Protect us from temptation and guard us in your power Know our sins and bring us peace."
Stockfish chuckles unpleasantly. "It's too late for prayers, girl," Kiki hears him say, before a renewed wave of pain makes her gasp, vision blurring.
Just before she loses consciousness, the young apprentice hears a series of terrible sounds. First there is the sound of something - something unnatural - rushing through the air, its passage so swift and so awful that the air itself seems to scream in protest. At the same time, a strangled cry - first of rage, then of fear - from Stockfish tells her that the wizard isn't completely in command of the situation. Finally, and horribly, comes a sound that she never wants to hear again: the sound of a unicorn screaming...
For a long time there is only darkness.
Then comes a brief period that is dominated by two sensations - constriction (tight bonds biting into her flesh) and movement (rhythmic rise and fall) - before the pain and darkness rush up once more to claim her.
Finally she wakes to a pale light, feeling stiff and sore, but no longer in quite so much pain. She is lying on on dew-soaked grass, surrounded by mist. Moving gingerly, she feels a pinch on her still-tender flesh and realises that she is partly entwined in vines. Were these the bonds that she had felt before? Frowning in confusion, she looks about herself, but can see no-one nearby.
Then, from out of the mist, an equine shape emerges. Kiki's first reaction is joy - the unicorn is alive! - but then she sees the grievous harm that has befallen the noble beast: more than half of its horn has been sheared off. Tears spring to her eyes and she almost falls into a faint when she sees the effect that this injury has had on the creature's aura, but when the unicorn it shakes its head and nuzzles her affectionately.
"Am alive," it tells her. "All that matters."
Briefly, the unicorn tells her what had happened. The dryad had followed Kiki's advice and attempted to prevent Stockfish from completing his spell by calling upon the lowliest inhabitants of her grove. Bugs and other tiny beasties of all descriptions had swarmed all over the wizard, distracting him at the crucial moment, but sadly this didn't stop the terrible magic that he had set in motion: some kind of invisible blade, which had cut through the unicorn's horn like a hot knife through butter.
Enraged, but also terrified by this assault, the wizard departed with the sheared-off hhalf half horn. The dryad urged the unicorn to flee, fully expecting their enemy to return, but the noble beast insisted that she first bind Kiki onto his back, so that he could carry his new friend to safety.
"Safety?" Kiki echoes. "Where have you brought me then?"
"Not yet," the unicorn admits. "Where safe? You tell - I take..."
It transpires that the unicorn has taken her to the southernmost edge of the forest, so she is about equidistant from Syran and her home village of Nortark. It is early morning of the day following their escape from Stockfish.
"I think it is time I went home for a rest" Kiki says as she fusses over the Unicorn. "It may upset you but I do normally wear cloths especially around my own kind," she adds, then sighs. "Nice as it would be to stay in these woods there is Evil walking the streets and to do nothing is to accept it."
She cuddles into his neck and with an exclamation of "Sorry!" bursts into tears as events catch up with her.
~oOo~
Following Salazari's route is easier than they had expected, but it does take them through some very dark and decidedly unsavoury places. They do attract the attention of some very dubious-looking characters on a number of occasions, but these ne'er-do-wells clearly decide that the two apprentices aren't worth the effort. The glimpse that this backstreet journey affords them of Syran's underbelly is very revealing, however, not merely for the improved understanding it gives them of the the city's physical geography, but also for the insight that it grants them into the diversity of life going on away from their home districts and the main streets that they are accustomed to walking.
Not all of the places that they pass through are dark and unsavoury, for all that it is the middle of the night. There are hustling, bustling hives of activity, full of strange sounds and stranger scents - here a workshop, glowing orange from within; there a laundry, belching clouds of soapy vapour. Glancing through a brightly-lit window at the rear of a large building, they see a guild council in session; peering though another, they see what looks suspiciously like a priest in an amorous embrace with a lady of questionable virtue.
Only when their route crosses one of the main streets in Eastgate do they recognise any of their surroundings. By then, they're too wary of being spotted by their uknown enemies to marvel at the back alley route that delivers them safely to a convenient point for scaling the College wall. After a breathless scramble, Eren leads Pavel to Jayron's office and knocks on the door, praying that the master is as much of a night owl as his reputation amongst the students would have it.
The door is flung open and a wild-eyed man with matted hair and an unshaven - and quite possibly unwashed - face glares at her. It looks like he's been living, working and sleeping in his robes for days.
"What in Arkat's name do you want?" he snarls.
In response, Pavel holds up the trefoil token in his fingers. "I was told to bring this to you, Master." It is as if the boy has forgotten Eren's existence. "Carrick sent me."
"Carrick!" Jayron splutters. "Carrick! Well he's got a cursed nerve! It's not like he and Bastian have done me any favours recently. What does he want with me, boy? Or are you just the messenger?" He turns and glares at Eren again. "And what is your involvement in this, girl?"
"Perhaps you could let us in?" Pavel asks, the soul of politeness.
In a rare flash of insight into social behavior, Eren realizes that as long as she stays quiet and lets Pavel bull through, hew own lack of social graces won't be much of an issue.
So for once she holds her tongue and doesn't babble.
Jayron stares at him for a moment, then steps back into his office and beckons them in wordlessly.
The room is dimly lit and very untidy. A single lantern on a tall stand beside the desk and a candle in one of the corners are the only sources of light. There are books and papers piled all over the master's large desk and a faint odour of sweat and spoiled food in the air. The two apprentices can make out some book-titles of the volumes piled on the desk and see a pile of blankets in the candle-lit corner, but the rest of the room is lost in the gloom.
Eren starts momentarily when she sees a movement in the corner , but then realises that it is a black cat, which had apprenytly been sleeping on the blankets. The creature yawns widely and stretches, then pads over towards the desk and sits staring at the newcomers.
Jayron gestures at a pair of chairs.
"Sit," he tells them, looking and sounding weary. "And tell me what this is all about."
"Master Carrick told me to bring you this," Pavel repeats, showing the man the Trefoil. "Should I not be able to find him. That is, if he's been kidnapped or something, like the other man has."
Pavel smiles brightly at Jayron.
The master looks aghast. "Kidnapped? Other man? What in Arkat's name are you talking about, boy?"
Eren finally decides that it is time to speak up. She hastily steps in and explains the events that have led them here, prompting Pavel for details where necessary. She leaves out her exploration of the secret chambers below the college with Kiki, as well as all mention of their association with Salazari. She is mindful of the cartographer's warning about trust - and also conscious that it she'd have to betray his confidence in order to explain their association with him.
By the time the apprentices have finished relating their tale, Jayron looks even more weary than before.
"This is..." he begins. "This is... I need to... Oh, curse it all, what am I supposed to do?" he exclaims. "If Bastian and Carrick have been abducted then I could be next! Unless... unless..." He breaks off, breathing heavily and starts to pace around his room, looking panicky. "Think, think, think, think, think!" he mutters to himself, patting his forehead. "Who has taken them? Who can help? Who can..."
He turns back to Eren and Pavel. "You must tell no-one else about this!" he insists. "No-one, you hear me? If this conspiracy is as widespread as you imply then there will be eyes and ears everywhere!"
He resumes pacing and muttering to himself, but after a few minutes he seems to calm down and begins to look a little less agitated. He takes a deep breath and addresses them .
"My only hope - our only hope," he tells them. "Is that our enemies are still too wary to act openly. They stirred up a hornets nest when they tried to snatch you," he tells Eren. "So there are a lot of people asking questions. Oh, don't get too excited," he adds, as a glimmer of hope starts to dawn on Eren's face. " You will have some tough questions to answer yourself, after that stunt with the Guardians."
He pauses, brows knitted in concentration.
"Listen," he says, after a few moments. "The best thing that you can do - both of you - is to lie low for a while until things calm down. Don't worry," he adds, when Pavel opens his mouth to speak. "I've not forgotten about Carrick and Bastian. Or your scribbler friend," he tells Eren. "But the best thing that you can do to help them right now is to stay out of the way, while I make some enquiries and contact some... some... allies. You've been lucky so far, but you are only apprentices, after all. Best leave this to me."
"Now, I happen to know of a place where you can stay for a couple of days..."
By the time the master seems to have reached a decision, Pavel feels that a place to hide (and sleep) would be quite good, and says as much.
Eren is torn: on the one hand Salazari told them to return soon, and he was trying to locate Kiki. On the other hand she was exhausted, hungry, and none too keen on going through the streets again this night.
Apparently her indecision is clear on her face, as the Master prods "Well? Have you some other plan girl?"
Eren sighs, and admits "No, no other plans, just things I'd _like_ to do, but I suppose they'd best wait. My master should be told, but I suppose you are right not to talk to more people than needed just yet."
She hopes that misdirection will explain her hesitation earlier.
Jayron unhooks the lantern from the stand by his desk, extinguishes it and tops it up with lamp oil. Then he rummages for a few moments in a chest in the corner of the room and produces two blankets, which he hands to the apprentices.
"Follow me," he says. "And keep quiet. There shouldn't be anybody about at this hour, but we still need to be careful to avoid attracting any attention."
The adept leads them through the dark corridors of the College and out into the cool night air. Eren feels the hair prickling on the back of her neck when she realises where he is taking them: to the very building that she and Kiki had explored the night before! Upon entering the building, Jayron stops and beckons them close.
"Before we go any further," he whispers. "I must warn you: the place where I am about to take you is a secret, known only to a handful of people. I must ask you both to swear that you'll not reveal it to anybody. And be warned: I'll know if you have broken your oaths..."
He produces a small object: a stone disk inscribed with some unfamiliar symbols. Both apprentices recognise it as a talisman. Muttering an incantation, Jayron holds it up; almost immediately it starts to glow.
"Now, repeat after me," he says. "I solemnly swear..."
Eren and Pavel obediently repeat the words of the oath, feeling a prickle of magic as they do so and fervently hoping that it doesn't apply retroactively. Apparently satisfied, Jayron warns them to keep close and then leads them through the maze of furniture. Only when they reach the cupboard and begin to descend the stairs does he light the lantern that he'd brought with him.
"Careful on these steps," he whispers. "They're treacherous."
Eren and Pavel exchange a glance, the boy unconsciously rubbing his knee, which he'd injured falling down these very stairs.
Jayron leads them along the corridor to the two doors that Eren and Kiki had found. Hesitating for a moment, as if trying to decide which door to open, he turns to the one on the right and leads the two apprentices into the chamber that Eren thinks of as the Mural Room. Pavel, seeing the room for the first time, glances briefly at the murals, but is more intrigued by the eerie bluey-green glow that illuminates the room. Eren does her best to feign surprised interest, but Jayron doesn't seem to be paying attention.
"You'll be safe in here," he tells them. "But on no account must you stray from this room. Do you understand? On no account!" He gives each of the apprentices in turn a stern look before continuing.
"I'll bring you some food in the morning, but I suggest that you try to get some sleep now. Any questions?"
After Jayron has left, Eren relaxes a bit. "We swore we'd not reveal this place to anyone," she murmurs. "But if they already know it exists we are not revealing anything. And now we can spend more time looking at the murals. And maybe finish our exploration. Maybe, tomorrow." She can't stifle a yawn at this point.
She starts to lie down, then after looking at the door she leans her borrowed staff against it so that it will fall down if anyone opens the door, to give them at least a moment of warning, she hopes. Then she lays down at the far end of the room. She's not sure that all makes sense, but she's too tired to think about it anymore.
Pavel is already snoozing, curled up on the floor. For once, he really looks like a child.
~oOo~
