The Phoenix Endangered by Mercedes Lackey

Author:Mercedes Lackey [Lackey, Mercedes]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2008-02-23T01:23:10+00:00

But there was nothing, anywhere, about a Lake of Fire.

"I think we should go," Tiercel said to Harrier.

It was a bit over five sennights now since they'd arrived in Tarnatha'Iteru, and it was slightly entertaining to Tiercel that here in the depths of the desert they'd both managed to almost entirely lose the sun-darkening they'd picked up on the way here. But in the Madiran, nobody went out in the harsh desert sun without protection—or at all during the hottest part of the day—and Tiercel had gotten used to keeping the hood of his light desert robe pulled well up whenever he left the Telchi's house.

It had taken him a couple of days to plot out the best time to grab Harrier for a discussion of their future.

It wasn't—exactly—that he didn't want the Telchi involved in it. It was just that he wanted to talk to Harrier privately first, because he knew that the Telchi wanted Harrier as his apprentice, and that Harrier was paying his Mageprice by being trained, and if they had to talk about that, he didn't think Harrier would talk about it in front of somebody else. So Tiercel needed to find a time when he could catch Harrier alone. Mornings weren't good, because that was when Harrier went off to practice. Evenings weren't good either. The evening meal came late—it was served far later here than it was ever served in Armethalieh—and after it, all Harrier wanted to do was sleep. The middle of the day involved other lessons for Harrier, and Tiercel was usually out then anyway, since he was still asking a few last questions around the city.

About Wildmages, for example. In the Madiran, they moved about freely and openly in both city and desert. But he hadn't seen any in all the time he'd been here, and when he'd started asking questions he discovered that there hadn't been one seen in Tarnatha'Iteru in over four moonturns. Nobody he'd talked to was willing to say whether that was unusual or not, but Tiercel needed to know.

Meanwhile, if he actually wanted to talk to Harrier while Harrier was awake it had to be now. Early in the evening, after Harrier had finished his evening practice and come back to his room after his bath, but before the evening meal. He'd made sure to get back to the house extra early just to be sure to be here.

"Go where?" Harrier said. He flopped down on his bed, still rubbing at his hair with a towel. "You've found something?"

"No," Tiercel admitted. "I'm not going to, either. But I still think what I'm looking for is here. In the desert, I mean. Somewhere."

"So, what? We just . . . go? We'd need guides, and there aren't any."

"You can find water with the Wild Magic. Ophare says so. The Wildmages here find wells all the time."

"Do I look like one of the local Wildmages to you?" Harrier asked in long-suffering tones.

"What they can do, you can do. If you have to.

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