David Wells - Linkershim

A timid knock on her door brought her back. She sat up and sighed.

“Yes?”

The door opened and a young woman entered, eyes down. “My Lady, your lunch is ready. Where would you like to eat?”

“On my balcony,” Isabel said, smiling when Slyder landed on the railing.

While she ate, she wondered about Alexander. He hadn’t come to her in some time and she was starting to worry. She told herself that he was busy, but she also knew in the back of her mind that something was wrong. He would have come to her if he could have, especially since he knew all too well what her plan had been. The more she thought about it, the more concerned she became.

After lunch, she forced herself to put him out of her mind, then dismissed her servants and propped a chair in front of the door to provide some semblance of privacy, though she knew that the wraithkin could bypass her door with a thought.

She spent the rest of the afternoon working on the shapeshift spell she’d found in Hazel’s basement. It was difficult to recall the specifics, but the more she thought about it, the more came back to her. By evening, she felt that she’d made some progress, though it was clear that this spell would take far longer to learn than any of her other spells had, especially without Magda’s tutelage. The principles were more complex, requiring a far more detailed visualization of the desired outcome in addition to a durational element.

She drew on memories of her time spent learning from Magda. While her light-lance and force-push spells were almost instantaneous, her shield spell had been far more difficult to learn because it involved an element of time. Shapeshift would require that same component. By dinner, her mind was exhausted and she was ready for a break. She wasn’t surprised to see Wizard Enu waiting for her in her dining room.

“Lady Reishi, I have spoken with Prince Phane and he is most insistent that we begin work on the drain-life spell.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Isabel said, seating herself and fending off her servants’ interference as she dished hot stew into a bowl.

“We will begin tomorrow,” Wizard Enu said. “Please be ready.”

She ignored him until he sighed softly and left her in peace. After dinner, she retired to her quarters and started thinking about her next move. Her first objective was to kill Phane, but realistically she had little chance of success, so she began to think in wider terms. Even if she couldn’t kill him, she could still hurt him, weaken him, obstruct his plans, or deliver usable information to her allies. The question was: Where was he the most vulnerable?

After Phane, the next most valuable target was Azugorath, but Alexander had already scouted her location and said it was so well guarded as to be virtually inaccessible.

So what then? She could pick at Phane, killing a few of his more important commanders or even Wizard Enu, but those individuals had little strategic value and would only serve to force Phane to tighten his control over her activities. Her opportunities to act would be limited, so she had to make them count.

As she turned the problem over in her mind, she kept coming back to the same idea. While she couldn’t kill Phane by herself, she did have an ally who could, provided she could give him the opportunity. Her decision made, she sat down and wrote a note briefly explaining her situation and the beginnings of her plan. With a rub under the chin, she tied the note to Slyder’s leg and sent him on his way.

***

“No, no, no,” Wizard Enu said, “you have it exactly backwards. I don’t know how many different ways to explain this.”

Isabel stood up, shoving the book across the table and walking away. “I don’t know what you want from me. I’m trying to understand, but these concepts are so advanced.” She started crying. It took some effort since she wanted to laugh in his face, but bringing her worry for Alexander to the front of her mind was enough to start the tears flowing. “I just don’t understand,” she said, punctuating her words with a sniffle.

Wizard Enu sighed in resignation. “Perhaps we should resume tomorrow. A night’s sleep may help clarify your understanding of these principles.”

Isabel nodded, still struggling with her tears as she headed for her bedroom. Issa followed her without a word, and as always, Isabel stopped him at the door. Once alone, she quickly composed herself and linked her mind with Slyder. She’d sent him north the day before and she wanted to check on his progress. As near as she could tell, he was getting close to the right place … the trick would be finding Ayela, Trajan, and Hector.

By evening, she was watching the world below through Slyder’s eyes while he circled over the area where Trajan and his men had been operating when she’d met them. After finding a patrol, she followed them, treetop to treetop, until they arrived at a base camp. She was disappointed to find that it was just a scout base, but it stood to reason. They would have moved their operation to ensure that she couldn’t betray them to Phane even if he tortured their location out of her.

A reasonable precaution, but unnecessary since Phane had shown no interest in the House of Karth since she’d arrived. She told Slyder to remain in the area in the hope that she could track the scout soldiers back to the House of Karth’s new command facility.

Phane arrived during breakfast the following morning, Wizard Enu trailing nervously behind him.

“Good Morning, Isabel. I trust you’re being well cared for.”

Dierdra stiffened almost imperceptibly at his question.

“I might be the most well-cared-for prisoner in the history of the Seven Isles,” Isabel said without bothering to get up.

Phane smiled brightly, taking a seat at the table and picking up a strip of bacon. “You shouldn’t think of yourself as a prisoner. You may go through any door that will open for you within this entire fortress. There is very little here that I will not share with you.”

“What do you want, Phane? Do you think you can buy my loyalty or even my love with this over-decorated house? Are you really that delusional?”

The staff and soldiers in the room became very still as if they were trying to avoid any possibility of drawing Phane’s attention.

He glared at her, slowly chewing his bacon and shaking his head ever so slightly. “Don’t be so ungrateful. I could have easily left you in that cell, and I must say, General Hargrove and his wife were none too pleased when I evicted them from this house.”

“So, he’s the one responsible for all this clutter,” Isabel said, gesturing to the walls.

“More likely his wife,” Phane said, then smiled unexpectedly. “You see, we’ve just discovered something that we agree on. I prefer simple and tasteful decorations in my home as well. Perhaps we have more in common than you think.”

“Are you kidding me?”

Phane sighed, looking almost dejected. “You wound me, Isabel. I’m trying very hard to accommodate you in every way and all I get back is mockery and derision. There is only so much a man can take before such rudeness is returned in kind.”

Isabel started laughing.

“Enough!” he shouted, surging to his feet. “I will not be disrespected by a guest in my home.”

Isabel kept laughing, holding Phane’s eyes defiantly.

He returned her glare and started to smile maliciously, gesturing to a guard at the door.

It opened and Isabel stopped laughing, horror and fear filling her in a way that chilled her to the core. She felt the blood drain from her face and her mouth go dry.

Wren stood at the threshold, looking afraid and confused. When she saw Isabel, she wrenched her arm free of the guard and raced to her, both of them breaking down in tears, both for different reasons.