Chapter 5 #4
Dahin managed to let the Tescai-lin finish expressing relief for Ziede and Tahren’s survival before he said, “Yes, we’re all very lucky the Nient-arik trusted Immortal Blessed who are as incompetent as they are malicious, but we raced to get here ahead of the Rising World council’s response and at this point they can’t be more than a few days behind us. So—”
“They found artifacts with Hierarch symbols,” Kai said, because there was no point delaying. “Including a Hierarch expositor’s badge.”
Ziede was briefly startled. “That bad?” As she leaned back against the pillows, she said silently to Kai, Somehow I thought it would all be exaggerated, a mistake. Tahren squeezed her knee, her own expression grim.
Kai answered the same way, I think I did too.
Tahren asked, “Where in Sun-Ar did they find it?”
“I was told to the northwest of the place the scholars believe was a seasonal gathering point,” the Tescai-lin said. “I have not been shown the location on a map.”
“Northwest.” Tahren considered it, her gaze going to where Dahin had moved some dishes to the floor to spread his map out. “I assume they couldn’t tell how old it was, or we would not be here having this conversation.”
“They could not,” the Tescai-lin admitted.
Tenes sat forward and signed, Learned Leader, I apologize but I have forgotten much of what I was taught. Did the Hierarchs create the expositors?
Kai had a flash of memory, camped along a river road somewhere in the Sana-sarcofa, watching Amabel’s younger sibling—it had been so long her name had slipped away—teaching the Tescai-lin Witchspeak. She had moved the fingers of their much larger hand to show them how to shape the symbols.
The Tescai-lin answered, “They did. At least, the expositors who spoke of it believed they did.”
Dahin glanced up from the map and added, “They created them to control the raw power of the Well.” Sanja drew breath to speak and he continued, “Before you ask, the expositors didn’t kill the Hierarchs because to be a Hierarch, they had to bathe in and be forged in the depth of the Well. They were impervious to its power.”
Kai said, “But not to sharp blades. Or dull ones, if you’re not in a hurry.”
“Which is why we’re all still alive,” Ziede finished.
Tahren’s brow was furrowed. Bringing them back to the point, she said, “This badge could have been left by survivors who fled to the far south after the war.”
“Yes, fled back to where the Hierarchs’ Well is,” Dahin said pointedly.
A little of Tahren’s exasperation slipped out. “I am not disputing that. But there are many ways a piece of jewelry could end up somewhere that don’t prove that another invasion is imminent.”
The Tescai-lin jumped in before it became an argument, and the conversation became quickly mired in detail. Tenes followed it, frowning intently, but Kai had already been over most of it in his own mind.
Ziede said through her pearl, Expositors, tinkering with the Well all this time? Surely we would know about it before now, surely they would have attacked in force, somewhere in the Rising World.
I know, Kai thought back. He added, And they’ve never been good at cooperating with each other, especially if there’s not a Hierarch holding the whip over them.
He couldn’t imagine expositors, even with some new Hierarch to keep them in line, calmly sitting around up there biding their time.
Except, of course, that was what they had done the first time, wasn’t it—built up their strength gradually, subjugated the lands of the far south first with tricks and then with force …
Sanja shifted around, distracted by a shout from the attached atrium.
From the noise, the children of the house were playing in there.
“You can go join them if you want,” Kai told her quietly.
She had only taken one of the little blackcurrant cakes, which showed how much she had probably put away at the port cookshop.
She eyed him suspiciously. “You won’t leave me.”
“No,” Kai told her. She hadn’t seemed concerned about that at any of the places where it would have been truly terrible to be abandoned.
It said something about her estimation of Kai’s character, that she only worried about being left behind at safe places like here and Nibet House in Benais-arik.
“I don’t leave my discarded children with the Tescai-lin; that’s considered very rude in Enalin. ”
Sanja gave him a withering look. Then she scrambled off the couch, collected some fried hand pies stuffed with spiced cabbage and chickpea into a napkin, and went out to the atrium.
“But do we know if anything has happened since the object was found?” Tahren was asking. “It must have been months ago, if they had to send back word of it all the way from the Capstone.”
“Much more recent than that.” The Tescai-lin’s expression was somewhat wry. “When Highsun joined the effort to make the trek to Sun-Ar again, he also brought Immortal Blessed anchor stones.”
Kai said, “He what?” which was drowned out by Tahren and Ziede’s startled exclamations. Dahin shushed them all, waving an annoyed hand.
Kai thought, he’s not surprised. He must have had some inkling of it. But why hadn’t he mentioned it.
The Tescai-lin continued, “He apparently taught at least some of the mortal scholars to use them. That’s how they’ve been getting messages back to Ancartre so quickly.”
Tenes sat forward and signed in Witchspeak, What are anchor stones?
Preoccupied, Ziede told her, “They let Immortal Blessed travel quickly, very much like the way Saadrin came to us on the ship. But more portable.”
The anchor stones were tied to the Well of Thosaren, like the well sources used to power ascension rafts and Immortal Blessed ships.
They were like portable well sources themselves, and Immortal Blessed could use them for transport over long but limited distances.
They had to be placed in prepared locations in advance, before they could be used; Ilhanrun Highsun must have planted them along the route the expedition had taken across the southern continent.
How he had taught mortals to use them, Kai had no idea.
Tahren muttered under her breath, “Mother of Thosaren.”
“Right?” Dahin agreed, glancing over at her, his enmity apparently forgotten for once. “And they called you an apostate.”
“Did you know about this?” Tahren turned to Dahin, knotting her fingers together. Normal conversations with Dahin were not something she took lightly. Kai was aware Ziede was holding her breath.
“I suspected.” Dahin shrugged. “From what I overheard in the council meeting, it sounded like they were getting information surprisingly quickly from a group of people so far away.”
“Yes, of course,” Tahren murmured. She added, “Highsun was always full of surprises.”
It was almost funny. All that effort the Patriarchs had expended to keep the secrets of their Well of Thosaren and here Highsun was, equipping a bunch of mortal scholars with one of the most rare and powerful Blessed devices in existence. Kai said, “It’s too bad Saadrin isn’t here.”
The Tescai-lin lifted their brows skeptically. “Is it?” Immortal Blessed, other than Tahren, weren’t exactly welcomed by the Enalin, even after all these years.
Dahin snorted a laugh. “I know, but— To see her face when she hears about it!”
Kai gave them all a moment to imagine that.
He looked out toward the atrium. The children had settled on the floor near the archway.
Sanja appeared engrossed in an elaborate game with the others, played with tiny ceramic figurines.
It’s not the same, he reminded himself. We’re not the same.
If something comes down from the south, we’ll meet it head-on this time.
He said, “What does the expedition know about the Well? Highsun would have told them something, if not everything.”
Tahren’s voice was acerbic. “Why wouldn’t he tell them everything? He seems to enjoy sharing information.”
“He may very well have.” The Tescai-lin conceded that with a nod.
“Being scholars of history, they already know more than most mortals. They know it existed, and how it originally fed the Hierarchs’ power.
But, as far as I know, they believe it was destroyed.
Once the first expedition found that the people of Sun-Ar had been massacred, it was impossible to tell if the Hierarchs originated near there or somewhere further south.
They found no traces of the Well to guide them.
It had gone quiescent long before the last Hierarch was killed, and they had no way to track its location. ”
Tenes signed, So these scholars don’t know to be careful. Unless the Immortal Blessed warned them.
“Surely he warned them,” Kai said. Highsun must understand more than most about the danger of anything left behind by the Hierarchs. You would think, he reminded himself. The Blessed weren’t best known for anticipating the consequences of their actions.
“That’s not even the worst of it.” Ziede’s brow furrowed in increasing concern. “If someone wanted to find the Well, going along with the expedition, or following it up there, would be an excellent way to do it.”
Dahin shrugged and poked at the remains of a cabbage pie. “They would have been alert for that. And expositors aren’t good at hiding what they are for very long.”
It wouldn’t necessarily be an expositor, Kai thought.
Every land, every culture had people who might become monsters given the right opportunity.
All it would take was for one to stumble on the right information about the Hierarchs’ Well.
He wondered why Dahin wanted to dismiss this extremely valid concern.
He sent through Ziede’s pearl, Does Dahin seem cagey suddenly? More than usual?
Yes, he does, Ziede responded with grim resignation. Tahren watched her brother with a faint line of consternation between her brows.
Dahin reclaimed his map and tucked it into his bag.
“Anyway, I’m not surprised neither expedition found anything to point them to the Well.
The Hierarchs were all too aware they needed to keep it and their homeland hidden, even before they left to conquer the world.
” He met the Tescai-lin’s gaze. “Light of a Hundred Coronels, I need to speak to the scholars that are here, the ones working on the expedition’s findings.
Before Benais-arik sends their official delegation.
With your blessing, perhaps in written form, I could go there tonight, and no one else need be bothered. ”
Kai was incredulous. So now Dahin suddenly wanted to continue alone, after dragging them all the way here.
The Tescai-lin regarded him skeptically. “And why would Dahin Stargard, the noted scholar of history, not be welcome in the official delegation?”
Dahin sighed. “Bashat wants to be an emperor, still, doesn’t he, even though the coalition has already said no once.
Too many people know that, and it’s already stirred up more trouble than the Rising World has faced in years.
The Nient-arik faction allying with the Immortal Blessed renegades can’t be the only conspiracy, just the one that got caught.
To find the Well and destroy it, it has to be someone trusted.
I trust me. And you, obviously. And them.
” He jerked his head toward Kai and the others.
“Thank you for including us,” Tahren muttered, and oofed softly as Ziede elbowed her.
The Tescai-lin said, “I thank you for putting me second in that illustrious list. And in the morning—”
Etem, the Doorkeeper who had first greeted them, came into the room at a hurried pace. They sat down on the couch next to the Tescai-lin and leaned in to speak to them in a low whisper.
Kai watched the Tescai-lin’s expression sharpen in worry and had a bad feeling. He finished his last bite of pie and dusted crumbs from his hands.
The Tescai-lin asked a question, nodded at the whispered answer.
Then they said, “A messenger has come from Chancellor Domtellan, who oversees the scholars who work on the expedition’s findings.
She says a delegation purporting to be from the Rising World has arrived, but their circumstances are suspicious. Two Immortal Blessed accompany them.”
Dahin made a noise like the air had been punched out of him. “It’s them.” He shot to his feet in alarm. “It’s the conspirators!”
Kai wasn’t sure he believed that, but they had to find out. He came to his feet in time with the others. He said, “We can take the raft and be there quickly, if someone can show us the way.”
“Etem can guide you,” the Tescai-lin said. “I’ll follow with the ambassador’s guard.” With grim certainty, they added, “Whoever it is, they will explain themselves.”