Lawrence Watt-Evans - The Vondish Ambassador

"Well, I don't know for certain that they're going to try. I'm sure you could convince them not to."

"Why would they even consider doing something so insane? And how do you know about it?"

"They… I'm not saying it's the empire, all right? I never said that. But the people I'm talking about know there's a source of magical power in Lumeth of the Towers and they want to destroy it so it can't be used against them, and I think the source they're looking for is the towers."

"You think?"

Emmis sighed. "Yes. I was… a wizard was hired to identify the source, and said he couldn't, because there's magic interfering, so I asked a theurgist to tell me everything in Lumeth that had protective spells on it, because I thought that would narrow it down, and he told me that there are protective spells on their government palace, and on a tunnel the Cult of Demerchan uses, and on a few personal things like spell books, but most of all on the towers. They've got a lot of protective spells on them. So maybe this magic source is in the Demerchan tunnel, or in the palace, but I'd expect to find protective spells on those anyway, and it seems more likely that the mysterious power source is these gigantic sorcerous talismans. Which would explain why the source has been so hard to identify."

Ithinia stared at him silently for a moment.

"A source of magical power, you said?"

"Yes."

"The towers aren't…" She stopped and frowned. After another moment of thoughtful silence she said, "If anyone asks, I cast a spell on you that forced you to tell me this. You resisted as best you could, but of course you were helpless against high-order wizardry."

"Of course," Emmis quickly agreed.

"I won't deny it. Just as well if everyone thinks we have such a spell handy, and that we're ruthless enough to use it on innocent bystanders."

Emmis blinked, hesitated, then asked, "Don't you have such a spell?"

"Not really, no. I wish we did. We have a few spells that could get answers to specific questions, but they aren't entirely reliable. Witches are much better at that sort of thing, but I'm never going to tell anyone the Wizards' Guild had to ask witches for help." She sighed. "Though if you stop cooperating, I will ask a witch for help. Which would be awkward for all of us."

"I'm trying to cooperate, but I promised never to reveal certain things, and it's understood that if certain people learn them my life is forfeit."

"Am I one of those people?"

"No, but… no, you aren't. But I'm not sure I want to trust my life to you; I hardly know you."

Ithinia smiled crookedly. "I can understand that. If you think about it, though, you're already trusting your life to me, just by being here. I'm the senior Guildmaster in this city; if you died here, or simply disappeared from this house never to be seen again, nothing would be done about it."

Emmis bit his lower lip. The wizard was speaking the truth, and he knew it.

"Is there anything more you can tell me? For example, why does someone think there's a source of magical power in Lumeth in the first place?"

"They know it's there. It's been used."

"I am clearly going to need to have some long conversations with His Excellency."

So much, Emmis thought, for his job as Lar's aide. That hadn't lasted long – four days [Note to self: check chronology for second draft], was it? Four very busy days, but still, just four days. He sighed. The lie about an enchantment might save his life, as he didn't think Lar was a bloodthirsty man and Ithinia wasn't a warlock, but his job was as good as gone.

"So this magic – was it Vond who used it? Was that how he became so powerful before the Calling took him?"

Emmis stared at her, not answering, not even refusing to answer, but just sitting on the bed.

"And someone's worried it will be used again? But why would the Empire be worried about that? They're the ones who know how it's done."

Emmis turned to look at the window, to make it harder for the wizard to read his expression.

Ithinia leaned back in her chair and folded her hands behind her head. "Ah, but the actual source is in Lumeth of the Towers, you said. Which Vond never conquered. So maybe whoever or whatever stopped him is still there, and the Empire is afraid it will emerge and undo everything Vond did. Maybe that's it, and it wasn't Vond's power source at all."

The clouds seemed to be thinning, Emmis thought; the sky outside the window was brighter than before. The sun was starting to break through.

"But… is it a war with Lumeth they're worried about? Is that why the Lumethans are hiring assassins, because they're expecting a war? That's not what Ildirin told me."

Emmis decided he could respond to this. "The Lumethans think Lar came to Ethshar to hire magicians for the Empire to use against Lumeth, and they wanted him dead before he could do that," he said.

"Did he come to Ethshar to hire magicians for the Empire to use against Lumeth?"

"No. At least, not that way; the Empire doesn't want a war. But Lumeth and Ashthasa don't believe that."

"The Small Kingdoms have a code against using magic to fight their wars. And Vond broke that code, so they think his Empire is outside all law and custom, even with Vond himself gone."

"I think that's it, yes."

"How do you know Lar hasn't lied to you, and the Lumethans aren't right?"

Emmis stammered, then turned up his empty palms. "I believe him," he said.

"But you have no proof."

"No. But everything he's told me makes sense, more sense than the idea that the Empire wants to hire magicians to conquer all its neighbors."

"So the Lumethans think the Vondish are planning to invade with magical aid, while the Vondish think the Lumethans are going to use magic against them. Is that right?"

"I… I think you should ask the ambassador."

"I will. But I'd like to have it straight in my own mind first. It's always more impressive if I already know the answers, and appearing impressive is part of my job as Guildmaster."

Emmis decided not to reply to that.

"So the source of this dangerous magic is in Lumeth," Ithinia continued, staring at her guest. "And the Vondish want to destroy it so it can't be used against them, which seems to imply they can't use it or control it themselves, while the Lumethans – they don't know about it, do they? Or they would use it, and they wouldn't be worried about the ambassador hiring a bunch of journeymen from the Wizards' Quarter."

"I don't know whether they would really use it," Emmis ventured.

"They're hiring assassins here in Ethshar. They'd use it."

"Well, maybe."

"And you think the source of this magic is the Towers."

"Yes."

"So it could be sorcery. Maybe there's a way to use the Towers as a weapon? Poison the air, perhaps?" She frowned. "I never heard of anything like that happening in Vond's wars of conquest, though. So perhaps it isn't sorcery. Wizardry, then? Is there some way of turning the spells protecting the Towers into a weapon?" She shook her head. "I can't see how that would work."

"Fendel's Assassin defended me from an attacker," Emmis pointed out. "Spells can work in ways that aren't obvious."

"You're talking to a master wizard, boy. Don't teach a fish to swim. I know most of the spells on the Towers, and I can't see how any of them would apply."

"Oh."

"And of course, Vond was a warlock. He had other magicians with him in Semma, two wizards, three witches, and a theurgist, but he was a warlock. So was…" She stopped. She stared at Emmis for a moment, then lifted her gaze to the ceiling. She unfolded her hands and lowered her gaze again.

"That's what you can't tell me, isn't it?" she said. "That was how Vond became so powerful. He found a way to use some of the magic from the Towers for warlockry. So the Vondish are worried that if he could do it, other warlocks could, too. And they don't have any way to control them. The certain people who mustn't find out aren't just the Lumethans – it's the warlocks. Because if they didn't go conquering empires and building palaces out of bedrock and tearing up the edge of the World, they could live there for years without being Called."