The Perilous Sea (The Elemental Trilogy #2)

“When Icarus wasn’t in oracular mode, people tended to regard him as something of an overgrown infant, because he was deliberately kept in a state of ignorance, allowed to read nature books and fairy tales, but not allowed any access to news, for fear knowledge of the actual world would pollute his answers. Icarus had always played to that. So during those ten months, he was able to use that perception—and the fact that he was one of the Bane’s most prized possessions—to his advantage.

“And he found out that indeed, during the years of his tenure as the Bane’s oracle, three elemental mages had had ‘private audiences’ with the Bane. The guards he had spoken to were lower-level security and were almost as ignorant as he—only much less curious. They simply assumed that after the audiences, the young elemental mages had been whisked back to the capital via some sort of expedited means, which was why no one had seen them again.

“He also found out about the lowest levels of the Commander’s Palace. He had thought that the palace had three levels belowground, but it actually had five. Only the Bane himself, and occasionally one of his most trusted lieutenants, were allowed in the secret levels.

“I searched for information on the other names that Icarus had given to the Bane over the years, those who were the Bane’s threats. Most were names I’d never heard of. Some I found in archives of overseas newspapers we had at the library, mages from various other realms who had been arrested shortly after their names had been given and who were often subsequently executed on charges of murder, corruption, or even gross indecencies.

“Ten months we had to accustom ourselves to the Bane’s monstrosity. But still, when we finally met again and exchanged all that we had learned, neither of us could stop shaking. That was when Icarus told me that he could no longer live like this. That even last summer he had thought of taking his own life.

“I begged him to think no more of it. The idea that in the afterlife his beautiful soul would not be able to soar with the Angels—I could not bear it. But his mind was made up. It was the only way, he said. But before that we must still ask him a few questions.

“The question he wanted me to ask frightened me so much I almost could not speak it aloud. How will the Bane be killed? The answer: ‘By venturing into the deepest level of the Commander’s Palace and opening his crypt.’

“It was not a good answer for us. Besides his oracular powers, Icarus had no other training in any kind of magic. And I was a simple librarian far away in the capital. Icarus’s despair almost threatened to tow both of us under, but I told him he must remain strong and appear normal, for I would ask a different question the next month.

“My question was, How can I do my part to help kill the Bane? It was the first time I had interjected myself into a question; tears of terror fell down my face even as I spoke. I remember his answer word for word. ‘When the great comet will have come and gone, the Bane will walk into Mrs. Dawlish’s house at Eton College.’”

“The great comet has already come and gone,” said Kashkari, his voice unsteady.

Mage astronomers had first discovered the comet in August of the previous year. At its brightest, the comet almost rivaled the brilliance of the sun’s corona, a beautiful, if also slightly ominous, portent that dominated the night sky and could even be seen during the day.

“I had to look up Eton College and Mrs. Dawlish’s house. I found the former, but not the latter, and Icarus and I were both bewildered at why the Bane would deign to visit this impossibly insignificant nonmage school. Then we decided that it didn’t matter. I would be there at Mrs. Dawlish’s house at Eton College, ready and waiting, when the Bane walked in, whenever it would be.

“The Domain was still a wealthy realm with a relatively vigorous ruler and a centralized power structure—the Bane always saw it as a potential source of trouble. The crown princess of the Domain was expecting and the two most recent questions the Bane had asked of Icarus concerned the gender of the child and whether the child would someday take the throne. So we knew the future heir of the House of Elberon was most certainly on the Bane’s mind.

“From time to time, he would ask Icarus what he should do as precautionary measures. Icarus was resolved that the next time he was asked the question, he would only pretend to sink into a trance—he had been so reliable for so long, the Bane no longer verified whether his trances were true trances—and tell the Bane that the heir of the House of Elberon should be sent to this nonmage school and I should be deployed as a special envoy of the Department of Overseas Administration to keep an eye on him.

“Icarus planned to go on as the Bane’s oracle for another half year—so his words about Eton and me would not stand out. And then he would kill himself in such a way as to appear to have died of natural causes.”