Storm Warning - Mercedes Lackey [79]
Karal had nothing whatsoever to say to that; he knew that Ulrich had been a good friend to Solaris before she became the Son of the Sun, but he had not known that she continued to speak as informally with him as his comment just implied.
How important is he, then? Karal wondered. From the sound of it, Ulrich might well be the one person in all of Karse that Solaris trusted to speak authoritatively with her voice. So the elaborate robes and badges of rank actually meant something. Did the Valdemarans know this?
“I was hoping you would be thinking along those lines by now,” Ulrich continued, going to the mage-sealed case he had placed on the table. “I have something for you to read besides those old books of law you brought with you.”
He unsealed the case with a whisper of invocation and a touch of his finger. The seal glowed briefly, then parted; he reached inside and brought out a handful of small, dusty books. The bindings had all faded to a mottled brown with age, and the edges of the pages were yellowed. He opened each of them, glancing at the first pages, and selected three, replacing the rest in the case and sealing it up again.
“I think you are ready for these, now,” he said, placing them beside Karal on the desk. “Let me know if there is anything in them you want to discuss. I suspect there will be quite a bit.”
And with that, serenely ignoring Karal’s surprise, he gathered up the pages of notes his protégé had penned for him and left the room, allowing the door to close behind him with a quiet click.
Karal could not restrain his curiosity and snatched up one of the books as the door closed behind his mentor. To his vast disappointment, it was handwritten in very archaic Karsite, and difficult to puzzle out. The other two were similar, and it was quite clear that reading these things was going to require a lot of hard work on his part.
It was also going to take a great deal of time, and he did not have it to spare. With regret, he put the books aside and turned his attention back to his list of dignitaries. Duty must come before pleasure, or even curiosity, and his duty was to complete that list.
Several pages later, he put down the pen, feeling virtuous and ready for a little recreation. He thought about the adventure tales still buried in his luggage, but somehow the three dusty volumes still on his desk had more allure than the sword play and sorcery of “The Tale of Gregori.”
He took the first of the books and moved over to the couch, curling up so that he got the full benefit of the sunlight.
A few moments later, he knew he had made the right decision. Not only was this a very old book, it was a copy of something that was much older, the personal journal of a Vkandis Priest.
With a shock of excitement that made his fingertips tingle, he spelled out the name of the Priest who had written the journal.
Hansa.
If what Ulrich believed was true, and the Firecat who sat at Solaris’ side at this very moment had once been a Son of the Sun himself, then this book had been written by the same entity. And from the look of it, the Journal had been started when Hansa was a man no older than he, right after he took his vows as a Priest and long before he became the Son of the Sun. Was this very book where Ulrich and Solaris had found some of their revolutionary ideas? If so, how much more was in here that they had not yet revealed?
“The Tale of Gregori” could wait!
Several marks later, he put down the volume and rubbed his tired eyes. This was no scribe-made copy, but someone’s handwritten version. The writing was tiny, crabbed, and barely legible in places; the archaic language more difficult to work through than he had thought. He hadn’t read more than two pages so far, and he’d been forced to take notes in order to get that done.
On the other hand, there was still a thrill of excitement as he contemplated the closely-written pages of the book. It was definitely going to be worth working through this. The things he