Myths and Mentors by Kay L Ling

Author:Kay L Ling [Ling, Kay L]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-10-23T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 21

When Tyla returned to Aberell Fortress, Commander Finnack took her into his office and questioned her privately. He was curious about the visitation arrangements and was glad to hear there were separate waiting rooms for gnomes and woodspirits since he believed it would be common to have both there on the same day. He asked if she had met Marrid and Zeetha and was surprised to hear Marrid had made a favorable impression. He was even more surprised about Zeetha’s infused powers. Tyla jumped ahead in the story and told him she’d heard Zeetha shouting, “Wrong! Wrong!” He shrugged it off, saying Zeetha was so unstable that anything could have set her off.

Finnack wasn’t especially interested in her conversation with S, but he wanted to know what Tyla thought of the security measures. She described the wards she’d noticed, and then complained that there hadn’t been a chair outside S’s cell for visitors, just an uncomfortable stool. The gem masters weren’t very accommodating, she said, and it was obvious they considered visitations an imposition.

When Finnack finished questioning her, Ertz was waiting in the passageway, and he took her to the room Aberell used for gem studies—a large, comfortable room with a U-shaped table for meetings.

Arenia and Parcune were already there, sitting on the right side of the U, drinking fialazza while going through illustrated books about gems. A pitcher and goblets sat on the table.

“We saved you some,” Arenia said, lifting her goblet. She and Parcune had heard Tyla’s story on the way back from The Emanicus, but they were curious what Ertz would say.

Ertz sat down at the head of the table, pen and notepad at hand so he could jot down anything important.

Tyla joined Arenia and Parcune and helped herself to fialazza before relating the day’s events, beginning with the knife lighting on its own and showing flames when approaching The Emanicus from either direction. There had been a carriage parked along the road, which probably belonged to the woodspirits, so it was hard to know what the knife was reacting to. Ertz listened thoughtfully without asking any questions, and then she continued, telling him what happened when she entered the property.

Unlike Finnack, Ertz was interested in every detail, and whenever he thought she was going too fast and might be omitting something important, he slowed her with a seemingly irrelevant question, such as how long after she went through the gate the bell in the courtyard stopped ringing.

When she said Zeetha had sensed her coming up the walk and identified her as “the female gnome,” Ertz made a notation, and he raised a brow when she said Zeetha claimed the gem masters were watching them. Tyla related the conversation with Marrid, and he made a few notes then as well.

Finally, she got to the part about the confinement. She described entering the building and following Havinth to S’s cell. Then she faltered, and Ertz asked, “Did Sheamathan speak to you?”

“A little. She was as sarcastic as ever.

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