Chapter 37 Perl
PERL
THE brIDE HOUSE, CERULEUM
They all stare at Harok as he opens his eyes. Damon has an arm around Tobi. Tobi is still holding the hand of his mother, who is watching her son with bright eyes, new eyes, her own eyes.
Harok looks at them all, one by one. The moment he says, “Suskara,” Tobi rips out of Damon’s grip and runs to him, hurling himself onto Harok’s lap, kissing him and kissing him.
When the kiss breaks, Doroth Zain says, “Irgo Harok. How are you?”
Elric translates for him, smiling when Harok replies, before saying, “He says he is hungry.”
Perl says, “Ask him where Kerik Darekul is.”
In a warm dining room with a view through fogged windows of the snow falling in the Bride House’s wintery gardens, the Brides of Zai prepare a meal of root stew and bread.
Perl and his assembled collection of Darek bastards, consorts and others sit at a long table.
Tobi produces a pouch of Zakol and insists everyone take a cup of his new favourite beverage.
They all agree, Lyr proclaiming it delicious and offering his cup to Damon and then insisting Elric try it too. Tobi laughs when Damon says he’d rather have some bitter argent, echoing what he says back to him in a strikingly accurate impersonation of his deep voice.
They are all hungry. Only Elric and Perl eat little of the meal.
Harok eats several bowls of stew, with Tobi sitting in his lap, watching him intently, alternating between asking him questions in Ambolk and helping his mother to eat her own meal.
Perl is glad to see him content, but he cannot think of much other than Kerik. Kerik in the hands of Jareleezi. She said she would not kill him, that she would drain his power. But after that?
Perl looks down into his bowl of root stew and sighs.
“What now, Perl?” says Damon beside him. His voice is tight. Damon, Perl is sure, has not forgiven him for what was done to Lyr. “How do we rescue Kerik?”
“We must journey to the Blue Mountains with all speed,” Perl says. The location Harok gave them for Kerik.
“More riding then?” says Damon. “We will need fresh steeds.”
Perl swallows. It will take days to reach the Blue Mountains.
Karo leans forward from down the table. “I have a suggestion,” she says. “You need not ride to reach The Blue Mountains.”
Damon looks to her. “Then what?” he says.
Perl has never been quite sure what to make of Karo.
She was the first person he ever drew to his cause.
She had sought him out, finding him in the Waste when he was there to uncover the meaning of his father’s work.
After years of study, all alone, she had arrived in the night, a young woman also alone, claiming to have travelled there from Ismagaar, drawn to him by visions.
Perl had been stunned. Karo’s arrival had been the first indication that his father truly did have a gift for prophecy.
For Batraous’s writings had told of a maid who would come to aide Perl by helping him find the origin — the man who would sire all the fae princes reborn. And Karo had agreed that this was her role. She was that woman, her coming foretold.
“There is a quicker way to travel,” Karo says.
“Known well in Ismagaar, where we understand the fae and their powers far better than in Azuria. There are fae ruins in the lower levels of the Bride House, left from the time this place was part of the Ivory Palace. And it is possible to create a path between two such gateways. There are fae ruins all over Ismagaar. We can use a connection between the two to travel there.”
Perl nods. If this is a fae method of travel, it must be a very ancient one.
He has never heard of such a thing. But he knows it is possible to connect two pieces of fae magic.
And this sounds like the way Ur-Durik travelled from the Amber Forest to Attar.
“Can you find such a place in Ismagaar that will form the other end of the connection?”
Karo nods, “Yes,” she says without further explanation.
Perl looks at Karo and tries to ignore the feeling of dread that settles in his belly at the thought of another mortal with magic because of him. And he thinks again of Kerik. Kerik’s power has come to him fast and he will be more magically powerful than any other mortal.
According to his father’s writings, the first Magician lost his mind and destroyed his own magical blade.
But he can attend to such concerns when he has Kerik in his arms, safe and well.
And he finds himself thinking, a little indulgently, that perhaps a fae consort will help the Magician keep his mind intact.
He clears his throat and continues. “Then we will do as we must. Damon and I will travel through this magical route. To take Kerik back, we will have to face Jareleezi.” He says this looking at Lyr.
“I know,” Lyr says. “I want to come too. I set Damon on this path to her. I will not let him travel it alone.”
“My love,” says Damon, laying a hand on Lyr’s forearm, “you should stay here with Tobi, Harok and Elric. Doroth Zain and Princess Karo will be performing some rituals to gain as much knowledge as possible from the Shard about Ur-Durik’s plans to take Attar. You can stay safe with them.”
“Are you going to kill her?” Lyr says.
“If we have—” Perl begins.
But Damon cuts him off, “Yes.”
“Then I want to come,” Lyr says softly. “I want to see her die.”