Storm Warning - Mercedes Lackey [140]
They continued to follow a line of disturbances on away from Haven into the north; not all of the things they found were as obvious as those circles of alien earth. Several times they actually had to land to find that there was a transplant, for it was so similar to what surrounded it that only the neat circular cut-line around it betrayed that it was there. And once, they found, not a circle of transplanted soil, but a circle of fused sand.
Only once had Karal ever seen anything like this, and that had been as a child, in a place where lightning had struck sandy loam. That had left a mark about the size of his hand; this was a circle of blackened, cracked black glass, mottled and full of bubbles and irregularities, that was easily the size of a freight wagon. The three of them stared at the lumpy glass, and Karal wondered if the gryphons felt the same cold dread that he did. Something had certainly struck here with terrible force. What if it had struck within the city limits?
What if, somewhere out there, in Valdemar, Karse, or Rethwellan, it had struck within a populated area? What if it struck his father’s inn, or Sunhame?
“Therrre werrre weaponsss that did damage like that in the old daysss,” Hydona said softly. “Terrrible weaponsss, in the daysss of Ssskandrrranon. The Grrreat Adeptsss usssed them. We had hoped neverrr to sssee sssuch again in the lifetimesss of ourrr childrrren.”
Weapons? It had not occurred to him that such a thing could be a weapon. What could possibly guard against such a thing?
But remember the Sunlord; Vkandis can strike like this. Surely Karse, at least, is safe. Surely He can protect His
people. But somehow, with this before him, it was hard to have faith that Vkandis would protect His people. This seemed too random, like a cosmic event, and even Vkandis Sunlord was said to be a part of a greater universe.
“We have enough, I think,” Treyvan said in a louder voice, shaking himself as if to shake the terrible thought from his mind. “It isss time to rrreturrrn.”
Obediently, if more than a little disturbed, Karal climbed back into the basket. But he was much too preoccupied with the thoughts called up by that circle of crackled glass to take any pleasure in the return flight.
As night fell, the mages gathered again to compare their notes in the Council Chamber, and once again, An‘desha prevailed on Firesong to let him come along. To his relief, Firesong had accepted his explanation of how he and Karal had met with outward calm. Pointing out that it was Talia who had introduced them seemed to make the difference; An’desha had noted more than once that Firesong, who rarely gave deference to anyone, gave an immense measure of respect to Lady Talia.
That was just as well; An’desha had a lot more on his mind than explaining a simple friendship to his lover. The mage-storm’s first bluster had stirred something up from out of Falconsbane’s deepest and oldest memories, and he was still trying to sort it out.
First and foremost, he was certain, as he had never before been certain of anything, that this was what both the Avatars and his seizures of fear had been warning him about. Secondly, he knew that a part of him recognized just what the mage-storm really was—or rather, what it was a symptom of.
There was a version of Falconsbane who called himself “Ma’ar” who was somehow involved with that memory, though without actually probing after it, he could not be sure just what that involvement was.
When Firesong went out with Darkwind to do a bondbird aerial sweep to the south, An‘desha stayed behind in the reassuring confines of the tiny Vale. Although he would have preferred to have Karal to talk him through this, he had approached Karal’s master, the Karsite Priest Ulrich, as a substitute to help him through another search through those dreadful memories. When Ulrich agreed, the Priest suggested his own quarters as the best place for such a search, and An’desha had taken the suggestion with relief. Then he had taken his courage in both