Robert Hughes - The Wizard in Waiting

After twenty-seven hours of nearly nonstop riding, the larger unit of the house of Faye abandoned their exhausted horses at the northeast edge of Chaomonous. In minutes all were underground, Bronwynn included. She plugged her nose with cotton against the fetid odor and took her appointed place in a low, lean boat. An hour later, just a few minutes after midnight, they were all assembled in a subterranean cavern beneath the warehouse of one of Admon Faye’s many “business associates” one who knew how to keep his mouth shut.

Several lamps guttered in the close, foul cave, casting a flickering light on Admon Faye’s face as he stood to address them:

“Here we sleep. Five hours no more. We’re within a few hundred yards of OUT target, so keep silent and get some rest. You’ll be awakened by squads and ferried across to the point of entry at the base of the fortress. Once inside, wait in the cavern until all have assembled.”

“Only one boat at a time?” a boatman asked. He knew the answer, but wanted to be sure everyone else did too.

“As planned,” Admon Faye grunted. “One boat the guards won’t take notice of. Fifteen boats at once would insure us all of a grave at the bottom of the river.” Admon Faye searched the faces of his fellow cutthroats, seeking any signs of undue nervousness that might indicate duplicity. He found none. His eyes lingered on the face of Bronwynn.

Angry? Bored? Or just sleepy and cross? Whatever, it was clear from her grim look that she was far from happy. The slaver dismissed it. He didn’t expect her to be.

“We wait in the corridors below the house until after its occupants have had breakfast. Breakfast within the walls is a feast as we shall all discover, when our little Bronwynn is the Queen,” he added with a wicked grin. “After the meal, the guards will be stuffed and sleepy from then- long night of defending the suburbs totally unprepared for our invasion. We’ll have diminished their number still further, I hope. I’ve scheduled a second raid on the western side of the city at a little after dawn, and Joss should be reacting to squelch it just about the time we attack. Sleepy, full, lulled by the false security of knowing where the enemy is, Ligne’s guards will be raw meat for our cutting.” Admon

Faye paused and allowed himself a satisfied smile. “It’s a good plan,”

he affirmed. “There’s not a thing that can stop us.”

Bronwynn stared absently beyond the slaver at the garbage and clung drifting atop the surface of the waterway. It somehow seemed the only appropriate backdrop to this entire episode.

A few hours later, the boat was pushed away, off to deliver its first load. Bronwynn fingered the hilt of her dagger and waited her turn.

The night had come and the occupants of the Imperial House had long been still, when Pelmen suddenly awoke, his body drenched with sweat.

He raised himself off the cot and felt the steam rising off the floor.

He reached out in the pitch darkness to touch the wall he knew was there and snatched his hand away from the hot stone. “You’re steaming!” he gasped.

Seething, actually, the Imperial House growled from its bowels.

“Angry?” Pelmen whispered.

Infuriated! the House thundered, and the steam continued to rise.

“Why? And where’s this steam coming from?”

While you’ve been slumbering, an army of thieves and robbers has crawled through the crack in these foundations! the Imperial House roared. As to where the steam is coming from, you will find the water is rising in the caverns.

- “Water?” Pelmen asked. The cryptic sprang immediately to mind:

“Deal gently with the House that speaks, lest it make the waters rise.”

“Are you causing the water level to rise?”

Certainly. In the same way in which this House cooked the fish.

“You have to stop!” Pelmen shouted, and he leaped from his cot. He jumped back onto it immediately, however. The floor singed his feet.

He quickly found his sandals and strapped them on, even as the castle snarled back:

Why should this House wait! Do you expect the Imperial House of Chaomonous to permit an invasion from without? Why do you think this castle was summoned to life in the first place? It was to protect this castle’s occupants against vermin like this.

Pelmen crawled into his garments as he asked, “How many are there?”

Less than a hundred. No! More of the scum seep in at this very moment! The Imperial House seethed in fury. “Who leads them?”

This House knows few human faces “Is it the man who took Bronwynn from your dungeon!” Pelmen asked. The House was silent for a moment.

It is that very rodent.

“Admon Faye,” The power shaper nodded; he stood in the middle of the room and tried to clear his head to make plans. Obviously this was the other plot Serphiraera had envisioned one of two doomed to fail.

Dismissing for a moment this reminder that his own scheme was similarly destined, he appealed to the House to recognize the outcome of its heated solution to the problem. “I take it you’re planning to cook these invaders out of your tunnels in the same way that you boiled the fish.”

You guess rightly.

“But these tunnels connect to the lower dungeons. Won’t that boil the Lady Serphimera as well?”

It will, as well as several of those in the upper dungeon. But a House cannot consider individual lives when its entire populace is threatened from without.

“May I suggest an alternative?”

You’re free to speak.

“Let my friends and myself drive these attackers from your lower galleries.” It was the only idea that came to mind. But he had to do something.

The steaming stopped briefly, and a puff of laughter whistled down the hallways outside.

That appears a ludicrous suggestion. “Not so ludicrous if you recognize that we will need your help to do it.”

This House needs no power shaper assistance to rid itself of robbers and blackguards. It shall do to this Admon Faye what it should have done the first time what it would have done, had these lower galleries been under control!

“Very well.” Pelmen nodded, feigning disinterest. “But the House does seem to need my help in ridding itself of a certain magic splinter of crystal.” He folded his arms upon his chest, and shrugged. “If the woman in the dungeon is unnecessariiy boiled, I see no reason why I should rid you of the pyramid.”

Pelmen waited through the cascade of curses that tumbled upon him, following his threat. When the House was finally calm again, it asked:

What do you plan to do?

“Is that an agreement to help me do this my way?”

Get on with it! A hundred and twenty now wait in the lower galleries.

“Fine. I’ll need a detailed plan of those corridors in your belly.”

Belly? huffed the castle. Rather, foundations.

“You call it what you like. Just give it to me.” Pelmen bolted out the door of his cell and raced toward Yona Par-mi’s room. To his surprise, Parmi met him in the hall.

“Yona! What are you doing up!”

“The whole castle is up, it seems. First there was a general alarm to the palace guard some kind of sneak attack on the north of the city then this strange steam. I was on my way to wake you. Were you coming to wake me?”

“I was.”

“Are you finally going to ask for some help?” the round-faced player asked with a touch of amused pride.

Pelmen thought for a moment. Was he being fair? Was it Just for him to ask his friends to risk their lives to save a Lady they didn’t know?

“I… wonder if it’s fair to involve you ”

“Would you let me be the judge of that?” Yona snapped.

“This is a dangerous task ”

“Wonderful.” Parmi nodded. “You want me to circulate the signal to gather?”