Lawrence Watt-Evans - Ethshar 07 by Night of Madness

Author:Night of Madness
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-06-03T20:15:50+00:00

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Chapter Twenty-four

Shouldn’t we have heard something by now?” Hanner asked, looking at the odd black talisman that Uncle Faran said was his link to Guildmaster Ithinia.

They were sitting in the front parlor of the house on High Street, in a pair of chairs by the mantel that Hanner supposed would be cozy in the winter, with the black talisman on a small table between them. Right now, in the heat of summer, with no fire on the hearth, the main virtue of this location was that it was out of the way of the various warlocks moving hither and yon through the house.

Lord Faran turned up an empty palm. “They’re wizards,” he replied. “What did you expect?”

Hanner could hardly argue with that; he knew well that most wizards kept their own schedules, ignoring the convenience of lesser beings-though he had never been able to decide whether this was arrogance or sloppiness. “If they don’t reach a decision soon Lord Azrad may get tired of waiting,” he said. “He’s never struck me as a patient man.”

“He’s not,” Faran agreed. “He gets bored easily and hates waiting for anything. That’s why he let me and his three brothers and his other advisors run everything. But he hates doing his own work even more, usually.” He tapped the talisman, but it remained inert.

He frowned. “Maybe I should see if I have some other way to determine whether she’s trying to contact me.”

“Can’t you just use that?” Hanner said, gesturing at the talisman. It occurred to him for the first time that his uncle might not actually know everything about how the sorcerous device worked; perhaps Faran wasn’t confident that the thing would do what it was supposed to.

“It might interrupt something,” Faran said. “If she’s meeting with other Guildmasters I don’t want to suddenly start talking to her from the talisman. That would be rude.” He grimaced. “I can’t think what I might use, but I can’t remember everything I’ve got up there.” He rose from his chair and picked up the talisman. “You know something about magic-or at least you ought to, after all the time you’ve spent in the Wizards’ Quarter on my behalf. Why don’t you come upstairs with me and see if you have any suggestions?”

“I’d be glad to,” Hanner said, getting to his feet.

That was the simple truth, for several reasons.

First off, he was eager to help out. He doubted he really knew enough about magic to be helpful, but he would be happy to try.

Second, he was desperately curious about just what Uncle Faran had stashed away up there. The sorcerous device that let two people speak to one another despite any intervening distance was completely unlike anything Hanner had seen before-most of the sorcerers he knew specialized in healing, or in consulting oracles, or in working with odd little things like fire-starters and lost-object locators. A few offered the use of magical weapons. None had ever mentioned anything like Faran’s talisman. Hanner wanted very much to see what else Faran might have acquired in his years of research.

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