The Spirit Stone - Katharine Kerr [141]
‘No doubt. Why didn’t you have me look in it again later? When I was older, I mean.’
‘It would have been too dangerous—dangerous to you, that is. I consulted with Nevyn, and he agreed. It’s terrible to let an untrained child mess about with dweomer devices. In fact, one apprentice of his died young because some unscrupulous fellow exploited her gifts before she was ready to control them. It weakened her etheric double, and she came down with consumption. Lilli, I think her name was.’
‘I remember that story, yes.’
‘So we decided I should wait till you’d completely mastered scrying. But by then the stone was gone.’
‘I see.’ Salamander felt a stab of guilt. If I hadn’t kept running away, if I’d only worked harder, maybe I could have seen the message years ago. Valandario was looking at him with a grim frown that made him wonder if she were thinking the same thing.
‘Uh, well.’ Salamander came up with a quick question to change the subject. ‘What about the spirit indwelling the stone? Do you know what it is?’
‘Spirit? There wasn’t any spirit when I had it. Someone else has been working with the thing.’
For a long moment they stared at each other in surprise.
‘It might have been Evandar’s doing,’ Salamander said at last.
‘That’s true, it might have,’ Val said. ‘You know, you can never ever tell Dallandra I said this, but the Guardians positively make my flesh creep. How she could have run off with one of them, I’ll never know.’
‘Jill made similar remarks.’
‘No doubt! Now, Evandar was at least less irrational than most Guardians. If he put a message in that stone, it must have been something important.’
‘Maybe it’s still there. If we do take Zakh Gral, I’ll be able to recover the pyramid and look into it again.’
‘If it isn’t destroyed in the battle. I wonder how the Horsekin got hold of it? After Loddlaen’s death, Aderyn looked for the stone, but he couldn’t find it. No one knew what had happened to it.’
‘It seems to have travelled a long way west.’
‘Yes, and I wonder how. Now, if you get the thing, look into it, write down what you see, and then smash it to pieces.’ For a moment her voice touched upon an animal growl. She laid a hand on her throat and coughed before she spoke again. ‘Look into it more than once, of course, if you need to. But when you feel there’s no more good to be got out of it, destroy it for me. Will you do that? I’d love to know it was gone forever.’
‘I’ll do that. I promise.’
‘Thank you.’ Valandario smiled, back to her usual composed and golden self. ‘You know, I’d best put these gems away and start packing for tomorrow. Princess Carra wants to leave at dawn.’
‘Well, then, may you all have a safe ride down to the coast.’
‘Oh, we will.’ Valandario pointed to her scrying array. ‘It’s the rest of you I worry about.’
Salamander pushed out a weak smile, then rose and left. He had to admit that even though he’d received no sinister omens, he was worried himself.
He found Dallandra and her cluster of helpers packing up for the march as well. Behind Calonderiel’s tent lay a welter of pack panniers, which the assistants were filling with medicinals, bandages, kettles for brewing herbs, and the like. When Salamander joined them, Dallandra gave some orders to her chief assistant, Ranadario, a young woman with raven dark hair and deep purple eyes. Since she had no dweomer apprentice at that time, Dallandra had taken on two young men and two young women who wanted to learn healing and herbcraft. Dallandra led Salamander some distance away, where they could speak privately.
‘What did Val have to say about the obsidian pyramid?’ Dallandra said.
‘A very great deal,’ Salamander said. ‘Let me tell you.’
By the time he finished, Dallandra was frowning in thought.
‘The thing that bothers me,’ Dallandra said at last, ‘is the presence of that spirit. I wonder who bound it? Evandar never would have done such a thing. I doubt me if it was someone who followed the path of light.’
‘I’d wager on your nasty bitch of a Raena,’ Salamander said, ‘or beg