The Wizardwar - Elaine Cunningham [73]
"You're certain of this?"
Basel's gaze was bleak but steady. "Beyond doubt. I refused to leave the room when the greenmage delivered the child. I held my daughter in my arms.
With my own hands I lit her pyre. I am not your father, Matteo. Believe me, I would claim you if I could."
"And I you," the jordain said softly, "but let's speak of the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. I've learned that searching for a jordain's mother is not only futile, but harmful. We must focus upon my paternity. Tzigone told me my father was one of the masters at the Jordaini College."
"How did she find that out?" Themo demanded, looking both aghast and intrigued by this notion. This was not something jordaini discussed or ponderedsuch knowledge was considered beyond retrieval.
"She got into the birth records kept in the queen's palace."
"There you go. You're the king's counselor."
Matteo shook his head. "I don't have Tzigone's skill at evading locks and wards, and the legal pathways to such knowledge are long and convoluted."
"There's another possibility," Basel said. "During my years as a jordaini master, I learned of a hidden book listing the jordaini ancestry."
"I have seen it," Andris said flatly.
Matteo brightened. "Did you read of my ancestry?"
The ghostly jordaini hesitated. "Mine was bad enough. Gods only know what swamp you sprang from." He punctuated his half-hearted jest with an equally wan smile.
"That is an evasion, not an answer," Matteo observed.
"With reason," his friend said softly. 'Truths of this nature provide a dark mirror. I have learned that where family is concerned, each man must face his own reflection."
At that moment the clouds parted, and a wash of color swept over the rocky ground. Matteo glanced up. An enormous flying ship glided through the dissipating clouds, seemingly sped by the winged elves painted upon ship and sail. Sunlight filtered through bright, silken sails.
Basel's crew brought the skyship daringly close to the clearing. A rope ladder tumbled down. The wizard scampered up, amazingly nimble, and within moments a makeshift sling was lowered to raise the injured Themo. Matteo and Andris saw Iago's body aboard, then they climbed onto the skyship's deck.
They stood together by the rail, watching as the Nath fell swiftly away.
"It is fitting that Iago's ashes be scattered on jordaini land," Matteo commented as the skyship set course for southwestern Halruaa. "At least one aspect of this trip will end as it should."
"I'd reserve judgment until we learn what new thing has gone awry," murmured Andris as he nodded toward Basel. The wizard strode toward them, one hand steadying the large seabird perched upon his shoulder. His face was grim, and his eyes burned with wrath as well as something that might have been unshed tears.
"You should hear this," he said abruptly.
The wizard plucked a small feather from the bird and blew it from his palm.
Immediately the feather dissolved into milky haze. Basel spoke an arcane phrase in Loross, the ancient language of Netheril and Halruaa, and the mist swiftly reformed into the shape of a stocky young wizard, a powerful looking man with muscles of the sort built by hours of labor.
The apparition bowed. "My pardon for this intrusion, Lord Basel, but I have grave news."
"This is Mason, one of my apprentices," the wizard interjected softly.
"I am sending this messenger from your tower in the king's city, for I cannot bring word to you directly. Farrah was found murdered in the front hall of the tower. The servants summoned the militia. I was shaken from sleep and brought to the magehounds for questioning." He hesitated for a moment, swallowing hard. "The knife that killed Farrah was found in my room, along with a vial from a potion of forgetfulness that erased the entire evening from my memory.
"I am innocent of this, Lord Basel, I swear it! There is nothing in me, no magic in all of Halruaa, that could compel me to do this thing. Yet the magehounds say Farrah died believing it was my hand that struck the blow."
The ghostly image broke off and