The Chaoswar Saga: A Kingdom Besieged, A Crown Imperilled, Magician’s End

‘Only that you allow Gulamendis to return with me for a time to my home island. There are other magicians, with different skills, who might be able to aid us in gaining more information on these demons.’ Seeing the Lord Regent begin to frown, he added quickly, ‘More useful information, I should have said.’

The Lord Regent glanced at the Warleader who barely moved, but Amirantha was beginning to learn to read the subtle expressions of the elves and suspected that the old warrior had just given his leader a shrug of uncertainty. Then the Lord Regent looked at his Loremaster.

Tanderae said, ‘It cannot do any harm, my lord. While none live who are more gifted in constructing portals,’ (which was probably not true, Amirantha thought, but now was not the time to digress on the topic of Pug’s knowledge of rifts compared to the Star Elves’) ‘the human magic-users are familiar with a great body of magical knowledge that has been for a time outside our areas of interest.’

Both Gulamendis and Amirantha knew that for an elf, that was a dangerous statement, for implicit in it was that the reason the areas of magic study among the Taredhel were narrow was the Regent’s Meet’s obliteration of the Circle of Light. Magicians who were not in direct service to the Regent’s Meet were seen as a threat.

If the Lord Regent sensed the reference and the implied criticism, he ignored it. ‘Very well. Leave at once.’

Dismissed, Amirantha and Gulamendis turned and left the great hall. Moving down the stairs, Amirantha said, ‘What just happened?’

‘Taredhel politics,’ said Gulamendis. ‘All of which is not of the moment. Now I get to study that damn odd book and talk to some people who might know a little more than I do.’ He actually smiled. ‘This is good.’

This was as enthusiastic as Amirantha had ever seen him get.

Once the two Demon Masters had departed, the Lord Regent turned to Tanderae. ‘Now, what have you discovered about our exploration and why it was balked?’

The Loremaster indicated that the Chief Galasmancer should answer.

‘The problems we have had were intermittent,’ said Nicosia, ‘and there seemed little consistency in how they were impacting our—’

Holding up his hand, the Lord Regent said, ‘I do not need to know the … specifics. I need to know who interferes with our work. Is it demons?’

‘I think not,’ said Nicosia. ‘The magic used to reach out to find us is … alien. It is nothing like the magic the demons use.’

‘Some of our lost brethren?’ asked the Warleader with the slightest hint of hope in his voice.

Tanderae said, ‘Probably not.’

‘We would recognize our own magic,’ said Nicosia. ‘This is nothing we’ve encountered before. We know our own and demon portal-magic well, and I’ve studied some human craft, and would recognize that. This is … different.’

‘Then what do you propose?’ asked the Lord Regent.

‘It was the human who just left who gave me the idea, Lord: we can open a scrying portal, one which cannot be passed through, but one which would allow us a glimpse of what was on the other side, a “window” to use a metaphor.’

The Lord Regent nodded. ‘I’m familiar with such. Laromendis the Conjurer used such to show me this world when he came back to Andcardia with word that he had found Home.’

‘Just so,’ said Nicosia. ‘But the difference here is that it is more difficult to do with a portal we didn’t create. We are attempting to reach out and view the source of the interference, to see who reaches out to us.’ There was a hint of pride in their achievement in his voice.

‘Then begin,’ said the Lord Regent, obviously unimpressed. ‘I want to know who is seeking us so that we may plan how to deal with them.’

The two galasmancers turned and quickly set about placing crystals in receptacles at the base of the portal device. As they did so, the four sentinels moved as if to make ready to intercept any intruder. They had heard Nicosia say that nothing could come through but old training overrode logic.

The spell was quickly begun and a humming filled the air. Suddenly a grey void appeared within the confines of the two massive wooden poles that rose up from the portal device’s base, and then suddenly between them there was an oval of darkness.

But there was nothing there.

‘What is that?’ asked the Lord Regent. ‘Is it night there?’

‘In a cavern, perhaps? Or an underground vault? We have used such in the past,’ suggested the Warleader.

Takesh, the younger of the two galasmancers, moved towards the device and peered closely into the darkness. ‘I can see tiny hints of movement. Wherever this place is, there is almost no light—’

Suddenly a shape loomed in the portal and two things were instantly evident. First, that it was nothing previously perceived by any elf in the portal room; and second, that it was a thing of baleful aspect.

Size was impossible to judge as there was nothing else in the frame to lend it perspective, yet the Lord Regent and everyone else observing the creature sensed that it was large, even immense. It was a thing of black smoke and shadows, with a silhouette of roughly elf-like proportions, but massive of shoulder and arm.

Everyone but Tanderae found themselves blinking as if somehow their vision was betraying them; as if the image was a trick of the light. As it neared, two malevolent red glowing eyes were revealed and it peered into the room. The creature was a thing of pain and hopelessness and it seemed, terrifyingly, to look deep into their souls. Then it leaned forward, revealing a crown of flames circling its head, shimmering crimson and orange, alight yet seeming to cast no illumination on the being’s features.

‘Can it see us?’ asked the Lord Regent in almost a whisper.

Tanderae acted and his sudden movement caused the sentinels to draw their silver blades and raise their golden triangular shields as if the thing might somehow step through the portal. The Loremaster pushed aside the two transfixed galasmancers and pulled a crystal from the base of the device, causing the image instantly to collapse in on itself.

‘What was that?’ asked the Lord Regent.

Tanderae was visibly shaken. ‘My Lord, if … I must speak with you alone.’

‘Why?’ asked the Lord Regent.

The Loremaster leaned forward so that his face was next to his master’s and whispered, ‘It is Forbidden.’

‘Leave us,’ commanded the Lord Regent and the galasmancers and the Sentinels departed at once. He looked at the other ministers from the Meet and said, ‘You may go, too.’ All left but Kumal, whom the Lord Regent permitted to remain with another subtle nod.

Tanderae repeated, ‘What I know is from the Forbidden.’

The Forbidden was the ancient lore, stemming from the time of indenture to the Dragon Lords, the Valheru, and it was denied to any but the Loremaster. Even as heir to the office and senior assistant, Tanderae was not allowed to see it. Upon achieving his office, prime among those charged with conserving the history and culture of the Taredhel, he had delved into the documents and tomes. He understood why much of what was contained within was denied the Taredhel, because it spoke of centuries of crushing slavery, with the edhel being chattels, with all that entailed: death, rape, endless labour and brutality. The Valheru were cruel and capricious and any reminder of that history had been subsumed into a vague ‘before’ in the history taught to the citizenry, which focused on the rise of the Clans of the Seven Stars since they departed Midkemia for other worlds.

‘I remember what I read in the Forbidden as if I had studied it all my life. What I fear is that which is seeking us is far worse than the Demon Legion. What you beheld was a child of the void, a member of a race known as the Dread.’

‘The Dread?’ asked Kumal.

‘A Dreadlord is a thing to make a Demon King tremble,’ said Tanderae. ‘Even the Valheru feared them.’

‘Truly?’ said the Lord Regent.

‘My lord, what I have learned from those humans, such as Amirantha, that I have come into contact with, who know anything about the time “before”, is that that which is recorded in the Forbidden is true.

‘A single Dread is the equal of all but the most powerful demons we have encountered. A Master of the Dread would challenge a dozen of our best spell-casters and a score of Sentinels. A Dreadlord is a being who might challenge a great dragon or even the Valheru themselves …’

‘What else?’ asked the Lord Regent, visibly shaken.

‘As little as we know of demons after our years of struggle, we know a wealth about them compared to what we know of the Dread. Almost no one who has confronted one has survived, and their realm is outside the normal concepts we have of all the various realms, but we do suspect that out there—’ he waved vaguely at the now lifeless portal, ‘—there exist even more powerful creatures, perhaps even a Dread King.’

The Lord Regent was speechless. He stood silently for more than a minute forming his thoughts. ‘Do you think he sensed or saw us?’

‘It is impossible to know. Something drew the creature to the other side of the portal. It may be that it emitted a sound, or some energy that the creature sensed, but that it saw us, knew who we were, or where we were, I think not.’

Again the Lord Regent was silent; then he said, ‘We will stop all work on the portals now.’