The Complete Darkwar Trilogy: Flight of the Night Hawks, Into a Dark Realm, Wrath of a Mad God

‘I don’t know, Pug, but I know we either have to kill him soon, before he becomes too dangerous, or try to change him somehow.’

‘I can understand your reluctance to kill him outright, Nakor, but why the desire to change him?’

‘Because what if my surmise is correct, that the gods put tiny pieces of themselves in us to learn?’

‘Fair enough, but you said you doubted the Nameless One was motivated by such.’

‘Yes,’ said Nakor with another grin. ‘But there are often unintended consequences of our acts. What if we can send back this tiny message that without a balance, and without good, evil can not exist?’

‘From what you’ve surmised, would it make any difference?’

‘It must, for it is the nature of reality. Consider the ancient symbol of the Yin and Yang, the circle contains both black and white, but within the white is a spot of black, and within the black a spot of white! Opposing forces, but each with a touch of the other within. While he may be mad, the Nameless One must recognize it as a fundamental truth.’

Pug laughed ruefully. ‘We may never know, and that is fine, for the gods have given us limited scope in our powers and knowledge. I’m content with that. But I must put those things I can understand and control ahead of your theories, no matter how wondrous they may be.

‘In the end, should Bek prove a threat to the Conclave, I will destroy him as I would step on a cockroach. Without hesitation. Are we clear on this?’

‘Very,’ said Nakor, losing his grin. ‘But I think we need to study this youngster for a while longer before destroying him.’

‘Agreed, but I want you to consult with others back at the Island. And before that, I want you back in Novindus with the Talnoy. They are a real and immediate threat. We need to find a way to control them without using that ring.’

Nakor nodded in agreement. The ring that controlled the Talnoy had the unfortunate side effect of driving the wearer mad.

Pug looked around. ‘Now, let’s see if we can find that trail.’

‘It’s over there,’ said Nakor, pointing to a tiny shimmering fragment hanging about five feet in the air, among some brush. ‘I noticed it while we were talking.’

Pug hurried over to the tiny fragment of energy, less than eight inches long, floating in the air, between two branches of a bush. ‘We could have been out here for years,’ said Pug. ‘How do you think the boy knew?’

Nakor shrugged. ‘This is a very evil thing, and given his nature …?’

‘You think he’s somehow attuned?’

‘Apparently,’ replied Nakor. He studied the tiny energy fragment. ‘Do you have any idea how this thing works?’

‘When I fought against the magic of Murmandamus, under the city of Sethanon, I encountered something like this, but far less subtle. It was the brute force approach to the problem. This is delicate, almost … artistic.’

‘Given the carnage we found in that abattoir Varen lived in at Kaspar’s citadel, this is unexpected,’ Nakor observed.

‘Varen might be a murderous madman, but he’s not stupid. In fact, were he sane, he might have been a valuable asset to us.’

‘Were he sane, there might not be any “us”, Pug.’

‘Not the Conclave, perhaps, but there would have been some group of us or another working together.’

Nakor studied it and said, ‘Where does this go?’ He pointed to the tiny thread of energy, a shimmering silver-green light that was no more than a foot long.

Pug pointed to the end that was closer to himself. ‘This comes from the last place it manifested. There’s a quality about it that is the same.’ He pointed to the east. ‘About a hundred or so miles that way.’

‘Did it look like this?’

‘No,’ said Pug softly. ‘There it was a sphere, about the size of a grape. And it was somehow anchored in place by energy that tethered it to the ground. It was invisible to the eye and without substance, so you could walk through it and never notice. It took a particularly adept spell to reveal it to us. This appears to be …’ He looked back along the line of the energy, as if seeing something. ‘I don’t know how he did this. It looks as if …’ Then his eyes widened. ‘He’s found a way to make this energy jump, Nakor!’

‘What do you mean by jump?’

‘This end here,’ Pug said, pointing, ‘is not a hundred miles from the sphere. It’s connected to it.’ He stood silent a moment, then said, ‘It’s akin to the Tsurani spheres we use to transport ourselves from place to place.’

‘But those are devices,’ said Nakor.

‘Miranda doesn’t need a sphere,’ said Pug softly. ‘She can will herself from place to place if she knows where she’s going.’

‘But no one else can.’

Pug smiled. ‘So I thought, but you forgot to use one when you left the cave on the island the last time we met.’

Nakor shrugged. ‘It’s a trick.’

Pug nodded. ‘She’s been trying to teach Magnus and me the trick, then; we still haven’t got it, but then we’ve only been working on it twenty years or so.’

‘If that end attaches to the sphere,’ said Nakor, ‘where does the other end attach?’

Pug squinted at it, as if he might see where it led. After a few minutes of almost motionless study, his eyes grew round. ‘Nakor,’ he whispered, as if afraid to raise his voice.

‘What?’

‘It’s a rift!’

‘Where?’ said Nakor.

‘At the end of that energy thread. It’s tiny beyond imagining, but it’s there. Varen made his rift work. At first I thought he was storing vast energy to create a rift of normal size, but I was wrong. He just wanted a tiny rift, but one left open … for years.’

Nakor took a deep breath. ‘You know more about rifts than any man living, Pug, so I’ll not doubt you, but how can one exist that’s so tiny?’

‘The level of control to fashion one like this, and to keep it stable, in place, for the year or more we’ve been seeking this … it’s unbelievable.’ Pug stood upright and said, ‘Someone out there knows more about rifts than I do, Nakor. I could never fashion something this delicate, this precise.’

‘We better get back to Bek,’ said Nakor, ‘before he sets fire to the grass just to have something to watch. What do you want to do about this?’

‘I’m going to send a few of our better scholars and ask Magnus to see if we can entice a pair of Tsurani Great Ones to come and examine this thing. We will not have unravelled the mystery of what Leso Varen was doing in Kaspar’s citadel until we find the other end of this energy thread, and that means the other side of the rift.’

Nakor put his hand on Pug’s shoulder and squeezed slightly, as if reassuring him. ‘The other side of the rift could be a very bad place.’

‘It almost certainly is,’ said Pug.

Nakor said, ‘And we still need to talk about those messages you’ve shown me.’

‘I don’t know what more to say, Nakor.’ Pug’s expression grew thoughtful. ‘I may have erred in showing them to you. I haven’t even told Miranda.’

Nakor lost his smile. Pug rarely saw the little man look this thoughtful, so he knew whatever was said next would be something serious. Suddenly the grin was back, and Nakor said, ‘Then you are in very serious trouble when she finds out.’