Wielder: Adept: Book 2 of Lady Shey's Story (The Wielder Cycle) Read online

  Marella didn’t appear convinced. “Didn’t she also suggest going to Ianthill? She already has her suspicions.”

  “I didn’t forget. Relax. I just think she may have some emotions invested in Rikard is all.”

  “You think she might ignore some of the warning signs from Rikard?”

  “Look, we aren’t going to keep it from her forever. We just need a plan before we warn her.” He sighed. “All right. I don’t believe he is redeemable now. I think evil has ahold of him, and if Shey has any emotions invested in him, she will believe he can be saved, much as you seem to be doing right now. Only, I think she will be even more resistant to do what I believe needs to be done.”

  “What are you basing this all on, your weird dream? How do you know evil has him for good?”

  “I don’t, for certain.” His frustration surfaced. “Just trust me. If the guy can be separated from the evil and saved, I will do everything I can to save him. I mean, I like the guy and all. I hope he can be saved.”

  “I trust you, but this feels a little like something a stupid man might do. I hope you are right.”

  “Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”

  “Again, I trust you, but he is, or was, a cleric of Loracia. She can save him if we can find a way.”

  Gondrial nodded. “I think I know where Ianthill is. We should go.”

  Marella glanced at her closet door. “Give me a moment. I need to get something from my closet. I will meet you in the corridor.”

  Gondrial nodded and exited the room. Marella listened with her ear to the door for his footsteps heading down the corridor before she went to the closet. “Don’t be mad at him.”

  Shey opened the closet door and stepped out. She wiped a tear from her cheek. “I’m not angry. Go with him. I will go back to my room and wait for you.”

  Chapter 14: Strong Tidings

  Marella and Gondrial located Ianthill having a meal with the elder of Shezuris. Marella let Gondrial signal the master wielder while she tried her best to have an urgent expression. She was relieved when Ianthill excused himself from the table, wiped his mouth with a white cloth, and proceeded to weave through the other tables and patrons. When he got to them, he ushered them into the nearby hallway.

  “What is it?” he asked. “Those are the upper elite of Darovan I am neglecting now.”

  Marella hastily told him what she had done. She froze as his expression soured. She couldn’t be sure if he was upset at Rikard’s deception or of her intrusion into Rikard’s mind.

  After a long moment, he spoke. “I am not happy with you, Marella. Invading one’s privacy of mind like that has gotten more than one mindwielder executed. Mindwielders have adopted a code of ethics, and I think I should have Dicarion pass it on to you, but now that the deed is done, we must address the issue.” He rubbed his chin. “Follow me. Let’s go somewhere more secure.” Ianthill led Marella and Gondrial into a nearby council chamber. “This will do. There are enough magical protections in this room, I would say.” He motioned for them to sit down at the long wooden council table. His face turned serious. “I wish Morgoran was here to help me relate these facts, but he isn’t, so I might have a few things mixed up or turned around.” He cleared his throat. “There is a very real danger with Shey. Both of you know she has the ability to enchant and use dragon magic. I don’t know how much she has told you about her early life, other than she was a child of the streets, but the issue with her begins almost at birth. Her actual grandmother is a woman named Arbella. When Shey was only a few seasons old, she had already been passed from family to family, each one coming to some harm for harboring her, including Enowene’s own daughter, Celestine. It became necessary to hide her. The only effective way to ensure she not develop her powers further and attract those who were hunting her down was to create a break in her mind and hide her memories from her.”

  “Who is hunting her?” Marella asked.

  “The dragons, among others. Her abilities make her a target. She can enchant weapons, bane weapons. A host of people can enchant items and such, but very few can enchant bane weapons, dragonsbane, elfsbane, and so on. At least, it’s believed she can enchant such things. No one has truly tested her abilities.”

  “She can,” Gondrial said. “She did some enchanting of that sort in Fariq.”

  “There you go, then.” He sat back in his chair. “When she got her memories back by releasing Sylvalora from the jade statuette, the break in her mind was not completely healed, just circumvented. If Rikard knows about the flaw, he can use it to manipulate her to his will. It’s a good thing you have not told her of his deception. Her knowledge of the flaw could make it a lot worse and make her much more vulnerable. Right now, she has natural defenses holding it at bay and the rift in her mind impedes her real power. If she was to become suddenly aware of it without Arbella removing it safely, she might do permanent damage to herself, or worse. She is the daughter of the Silver Drake, a magical being of immense gods-given power. I shudder to think of what she could do!” He took a deep breath. “There is something else you need to be aware of about my villa. I wasn’t going to mention this because it didn’t seem relevant until now. I bought my villa from the family of a sand elf named Mysto. He was an illusionist, a dream master. According to his family, he called my villa the dream castle. It is rumored that he specifically constructed it to facilitate and manipulate the dream world. He delighted in entertaining, and he often treated his guests to a night of dreams, until one guest couldn’t tell what was real from what was a dream and slew him.”

  Gondrial laughed. “And naturally you bought it.”

  Ianthill shrugged. “I got it cheap. The point is your mind manipulations and Rikard’s illusions are being amplified. We can’t be sure if what you saw in his head is real or not, and there is no way to know if he believes his own visions or not, but I would think he does.”

  Marella could feel her cheeks turn red with anger as Ianthill spoke. She all but ignored the story about Mysto. She was angry at the treatment of Shey, and now Gondrial and Ianthill were joking as if it didn’t matter that the First Trine left a break in her best friend’s mind. Was she the only one who could see the harm they caused Shey? She had to voice her concerns. “That is insane! How could the First Trine be so irresponsible? You should have addressed this when Sylvalora returned. You should have had this Arbella person undo her damage.”

  “Marella, the moment the Silver Drake, that is, Sylvalora, was restored, she has been searching for Arbella. All these excursions she has been on, when she disappears for weeks and months, has actually been to search for Arbella. No one knows for sure if the old woman is even still alive or not. Sylvalora was made, created, to find people. If she can’t find Arbella, no one can!”

  Gondrial crossed his arms. “It does no good to assign blame. What do we do now, Ianthill? One of our friends is possessed and the other is vulnerable.”

  Marella was still fuming. “But, Gondrial, they kept this to themselves. They let her stay . . . broken! We could have helped her already. I would have found a way.”

  “Now that we know, Marella, our actions will speak louder than our words,” Gondrial said.

  Ianthill clasped his hands together. “Good, very mature of you.”

  Marella crossed her arms. “Shey should be top priority. Especially if you think she is so dangerous. She would be much less dangerous if you fixed the break.”

  Ianthill nodded. “I will use my every ability to secure the break in Shey’s mind and hide it, but even the most astute mindwielder could not undo what Arbella has done or we would have done it already. You two need to go find Enowene. She should be either at the Vale of Morgoran or the White Tower in Symbor. Tell her what has happened. She was there all those seasons ago when Arbella performed her magic. She might have insight into how to reverse it if we can’t locate Arbella soon. At the very least, she might have some suggestions. She is the one who ordered the break in the first place.”

 
; “Why haven’t you tried to get Enowene involved before?” Marella asked.

  Ianthill became angry. “Don’t be daft, girl. I care for Shey as well as you. We did talk to Enowene. Why do you think we are hunting down Arbella? Enowene has made suggestions in the past that we decided not to use because they seemed too dangerous at the time, but we might not have a choice now.”

  Marella was taken aback. She had never seen Ianthill get so angry before, but she kept her composure.

  “I will contact the dockmaster and get you two passage to Symboria at once,” Ianthill said.

  “No, I’m not leaving Shey here,” Gondrial said. “Book passage for us all. We leave tonight.”

  Ianthill scoffed. “How am I supposed to do that without alerting Rikard?”

  “You don’t think it would be equally suspicious if Marella and I disappeared in the night?”

  “That’s easy. You book him too,” Marella said. “Do what you can to protect Shey and book us all passage tonight, Rikard too. We will keep him close to us until we get to the Vale of Morgoran.”

  “Aye, we will keep them both close to us. Marella and I will find Enowene once we all return to Symboria.”

  Ianthill shook his head. “I will not do it.” He bowed his head. “If Rikard has been taken by the Lich, I know of no way to recover him except to destroy the Lich’s phylactery, and there is no way of knowing what his phylactery may be; they construct many decoys and false vessels to protect it. It won’t be easy to find. But if anyone can sniff it out, it would be Morgoran.”

  “Will Morgoran be able to drive it from Rikard too?” Gondrial asked.

  “No, you don’t understand. There is a reason there are not many Liches. It is a level of venality extremely difficult to attain. The wielder must reach a level of corruption almost incomprehensible. A Lich is no Spectre, ghost, or unlife, it’s a full blown incarnation of pure evil, a corrupted master wielder. It’s not going to be easily defeated.”

  “Understood,” Gondrial said. Marella heard the slightest hint of a quiver in his voice.

  Ianthill pointed at Gondrial. “You will stay close to Rikard. Don’t let him out of your sight, and don’t let him wander off by himself. I will book us all passage. I will have the great pryus send the sand elves with us too. I think they both have some involvement in this.” He paused. “You both know you have passed our tests and are all adepts. I’m sorry we have to cut our plans for celebration here short. We will just have the official ceremony back in the Vale of Morgoran. I hope you don’t mind.” He sighed. “It’s not going to be easy to tell the great pryus after he has made all these preparations.”

  “I’m sure he will understand,” Marella said.

  “No, he won’t. I’m not telling him anything close to the truth. I will just make up some emergency story. We have to get back at once to avert this or that.” Ianthill got up from the table. “Off with you two. I have to get back to the feast and lie convincingly. Shey is presenting the suppression gem to the great pryus soon, and that’s the perfect opportunity to grant her the protections I spoke of earlier.” He ushered them to leave the council chamber. “And, Gondrial?”

  Gondrial stopped to face his master. “Yes, Ianthill?”

  “Do be careful. This is a most delicate situation. Don’t let Rikard get into your head.”

  Gondrial nodded and Marella followed him down the hall. “For ancient master wielders, those three make me so angry sometimes. They have known about Shey all along and done nothing. They have kept her in danger by their idleness,” Marella complained.

  Gondrial stopped to face her. “I will respond and then we will not speak of this again—someone might overhear our complaints. What the First Trine and their associates did was nothing but human nature. They procrastinated like someone might procrastinate to get help or buy medicine from an apothecary. They know it’s necessary, but for whatever reason, they don’t purchase it until it’s almost too late, mostly because it’s some kind of hassle or expense. People pass the responsibility off to someone else, and in this case, it was passed off to Sylvalora. The important issue here is it’s not too late. We can help Shey and Rikard if we are smart and don’t let our emotions guide us away from where our intellects tell us to go.”

  Marella felt silly. “You’re right. The smart play now is to help our friends.” She sucked in a deep breath. “But if you think I can just shut off my anger because you make sense for once, you don’t know me. It will take me some time!”

  “I don’t doubt you.” He began walking down the corridor again. “I think we should tell Sanmir and Ramzi, not everything, of course, but they deserve to know what we’re up against. We may need their help if it comes to a fight.”

  “I agree,” Marella said. “I mean, to tell Sanmir. I don’t think we should tell Ramzi.”

  “Why is that?”

  “I saw him in Rikard’s mind. I got the impression Rikard thinks Ramzi has the real phylactery. I can’t be sure now that we know about Ianthill’s strange villa, but it’s best not to take the chance.”

  “All right, we won’t tell him. Marella, if it comes to it, can your mindwielding help Shey?”

  “If what Ianthill said is true, it is beyond my, or any other mindwielder’s, abilities without knowing exactly what Arbella did to her mind.” She thought for a moment. “Once Dicarion did mention a mindwielder named Theosus. He is said to have read the Tome of Enlightenment, the book sent by the gods, to learn mindwielding. If it’s possible, he would know. Only . . .”

  “What? What is it?”

  “He is imprisoned in Draegodor, the red city of the dragons.”

  “I guess he’s out of the question, then.” Gondrial reached Sanmir’s chamber door and stopped.

  “Not necessarily. Sylvalora might be able to get us in to talk to him.” Marella said.

  “All right, you work on that and I will talk to Sanmir.”

  Chapter 15: The Path to Decline

  The veil of night fell upon Shezuris clear and bright. The moon was full up in the heavens, its light bathing mostly everything in a silvery light. Sitting on a large pile of thick, nautical grade rope, Shey watched Ianthill, clad in his signature red and black robes, pace the docks, waiting for the others to arrive. He had booked passage on a stout frigate called the Wavebreaker, and the captain was eager to make sail. She was still dressed in her best robes and black cloak, since she had handed over the suppression gem to the great pryus just a few hours earlier. She shifted and gazed up at the moon. She was still fuming at the fact Gondrial had thought it best to keep Rikard’s machinations away from her. She had not survived on the filthy streets of Symbor by being delicate, vulnerable, or gullible. She could certainly take care of Rikard.

  A figure approached Ianthill from the south. It wasn’t one of their companions, and Ianthill obscured her view. She stood and walked to her master to see who had arrived.

  “You’re sure you can get there? You know how one of these works, I’m sure.”

  “Aye, sir. My family came from Ishrak and Ardenia. I am familiar with a dragon stone.”

  Shey joined Ianthill and found him talking to a young man with light sandy hair and a pleasant, youthful face. “You are giving up your Lora Daine? What if we need it?” she asked.

  “I have to get a message to Morgoran. If this lad can get to him quickly enough, he can meet us when we dock in Symbor.” He paid the boy a gold and handed him a letter. “That note is magically bound. I will know the moment it reaches Morgoran’s hand. It had better reach him. I have ways of tracking you down too.”

  The boy chuckled. “Don’t worry, sir. I am as good as my word.” He flipped the gold coin into the air and caught it. “I will deliver the message.” Ianthill nodded to him, and he ran off.

  “What are you going to tell Morgoran?”

  Ianthill stared at her intently. Shey could tell he was thinking of how much to tell her. “I know you are fond of Rikard, but I can’t let him just roam around knowing what we
do about him. He will have to be dealt with swiftly.”

  Shey gasped. “What are you planning? You are going to have Morgoran waiting to seize him!”

  Ianthill took her arm. “Aye, I most certainly am, young lady, and we will put him somewhere safe while we search for the phylactery.” He let her go. “It won’t be forever. It’s bad enough that I’m bringing a Lich into Symboria. I wouldn’t dream of letting him do whatever his will commands while he’s there.”

  “You won’t let Morgoran or Toborne hurt him, will you? I’m not sure he understands.”

  “Not on purpose. He will be treated as civil as he acts. I’m sorry, Shey, but I don’t think you realize how dangerous he is at the moment.” He realized what she had just said. “What do you mean you’re not sure he understands? What do you know about it?”

  “Sshh, here they come,” Shey said, seeing Marella and Sanmir emerge from the darkness onto the moonlit docks. Ramzi followed behind Marella, carrying several pieces of luggage. At first, Shey thought he was Rikard.

  Ianthill pointed at the dock. “Put your things there. I will have the porter take everything on board.” He looked off into the distance behind them. “Where is Gondrial and Rikard?”

  Marella set her small bag down where Ianthill indicated. Apparently she had found a way to get Ramzi to carry the rest of her luggage. “Gondrial went to get Rikard the last I saw him. After we spoke with you, we talked to Sanmir and went straight to Rikard’s room, but he wasn’t there. We split up to find him, and after a few hours, Gondrial met with us and said that he found him and he would meet us here.”

  Ianthill whistled, and a porter from the ship jogged down the dock from the ship. “Aye, sir?”

  “Secure these bags, please,” Ianthill said, pointing to the luggage.

  “Right away, sir.” He began handling the bags. At first, Shey thought she heard him groan from picking up a heavy bag, but she soon realized she was hearing a growl and it was coming from behind her. She froze, listening.