Storm Warning - Mercedes Lackey [145]
“True enough,” Prince Daren said as he stood up, smoothing his white uniform in a gesture of habit. “Well, I think we have wrung the last drop of water from this for now. I will go report to Selenay; I leave you to your various tasks.”
He paused for a moment before leaving, as his troubled eyes met each of theirs in turn. An’desha could not sustain that contact for long; he felt somehow guilty about all of this, as if he were somehow the cause of it.
“As unpleasant as my task will be, giving Selenay ill news,” Daren said at last, “I do not envy any of you your jobs. For once, I am glad I am no mage. You must all feel like oarsmen trying to outrun a wave you cannot stop.”
With that, he took himself out, and the rest of them followed his example. An’desha wasn’t certain how the others felt, but so far as he was concerned, Prince Daren had summed up the entire situation far too accurately.
Despite Prince Daren’s gloomy words, Karal was not about to give up the fight before he had even started! Surely there was something they could do about this! Even if they couldn’t stop the storm itself, well, people built houses against storms all the time; why couldn’t they build shelters against this one?
They survived back then, or we wouldn’t be here now. What we need is more information. The more we know, the better we’ll be able to prepare.
Maybe he was no mage, but he did know exactly where to go to find people who were absolutely, precisely ideal for the task of gathering and categorizing information.
As Ulrich followed Elspeth, Darkwind, and the gryphons to some mysterious room in the cellars of the Palace, he went off in a different direction entirely.
The clouds of this afternoon had thickened, and the air smelled damp, so he stopped just long enough to fetch a cloak from his room before heading out the side door to the little postern gate in the Palace walls that Natoli had shown him. The Guard there tonight wasn’t one he knew, but it didn’t much matter; most of the Guards probably knew how to get to any tavern in Haven.
His supposition wasn’t wrong; the Guard was only too happy to give him exact directions to the Compass Rose, directions that matched very well with his own hazy memory of the way Natoli had led him the first time.
By the time the Guard was satisfied that he had the directions straight, thunder rumbled off in the far distance, and he thought he glimpsed a flash of lightning against the dark night sky. He set off down the street just as the first few fat drops of rain fell onto the cobblestones in front of him with audible splats.
The few drops had become a downpour by the time he reached the tavern door, and just before he opened that door, he had a horrible thought. What if the rain kept everyone away? What if I can’t find them all? What am I going to do then?
But the blast of sound and warmth that hit his face as he opened the door against the rising wind told him that his fears were groundless. The Compass Rose was packed to the rafters; rather than avoiding the tavern because of the storm, the storm seemed to have had the effect of driving every Blue in Haven into the taproom.
Mouthwatering aromas hit his nose and made his stomach growl, but he ignored his hunger for the moment. Karal waited just long enough to get his senses used to the noise and light before pushing his way through the crowded tables in the general direction of the one Natoli and her friends generally used. He heaved a sigh of relief as he spotted the back of her head; one of her friends saw him and waved to him. Natoli turned around, saw who it was, and beckoned to him to join them.
He didn’t need any further prompting; he increased his pace, leaving apologies to those he had unceremoniously shoved aside in his wake, and wedged his way in beside their table.
“Karal! We’ve just been talking about all the weird things that happened today,” Natoli said, as several of the others edged over on a bench to give him