Blood of Aenarion

chapter SIXTEEN



Urian strode confidently into the audience chamber. He glanced around. Many of the Phoenix King’s advisors were already present. Lady Malene was there along with half a dozen other powerful wizards he recognised. A lovely woman, Urian thought but very severe. She caught him looking at her and gave him a sour smile. He smiled back as if unaware of her dislike.

Five minutes in my harem, woman, and you would learn to smile properly, he thought.

Urian loved these midnight councils. They reminded him of being home. He had lost count of the number of times he had spent plotting late into the night with his confederates back in Naggaroth.

Of course, this was not exactly the same. The chances were that no one would be murdered because of tonight’s events. There would not even be a significant change of power in the realm of Ulthuan unless something went very wrong.

No, it was the atmosphere he loved, the idea of being part of a cabal of people, meeting in secrecy under the shroud of darkness, whose decisions might affect the whole kingdom. There was an energy to such meetings that he fed on, that made his heart beat faster and pandered to his elven love of intrigue. He felt as if he really was someone, set apart from the common herd.

And, he thought sourly, in this he was like every other elf who had ever lived.

More wizards and scholars were arriving by the minute. All of them wore the worried looks of powerful people summoned in the dead of night to a secret council. Korhien Ironglaive entered, went over to his paramour and started talking in hushed tones with her.

Urian wondered what was going on here. It was not every night he was summoned to the Palace. Something big was happening. He would need to report it to Malekith.

A huge table dominated the room. On it were plates of cold meat, loaves of bread, jugs of wine, pitchers of water. There were books and scrolls and maps. It looked like someone was anticipating a long session.

‘What is wrong?’ Urian asked. Everyone looked shocked. No one was eating. The silence deepened and glancing around, Urian realised that Finubar had appeared. He was wearing his robes of state which made him look taller and more slender. The Phoenix King’s gaze was distant but his voice was as resonant and powerful as ever.

‘Do not mind me,’ said the Phoenix King. ‘Carry on with your discussions as if I were not here. I need to hear what you all have to say.’

‘There has been another attack, sire,’ Archmage Eltharik said, stroking his white goatee beard, a thing unusual in an elf male. He looked old. His skin was nearly translucent. His hair was white as bleached parchment. He was a specialist in all sorts of mystical lore, particularly that to do with summonings. ‘The daemons have struck again. They completely destroyed a small town in Ellyrion.’

Malene let out a long breath. ‘How did the word come in?’

‘A mage survived. He performed a Sending.’

So that was what had caused Korhien to rush off earlier from their drinking party. The summons had been most urgent.

‘How bad?’ Malene asked.

A certain morbid curiosity filled Urian. It was obvious that many of those here knew more than he did. It looked as if some of the rumours he had picked up on were correct. There was some new threat to the realm and one the present Phoenix King was trying very hard to keep secret, at least for the moment.

‘The town was burned down. All of the inhabitants had been subjected to the most hideous torture. Their flayed bodies had been laid out in a pattern that spelled the name N’Kari in the ashes. Along with other things. Threats, warnings, promises.’

‘That’s the name of the daemon who led the forces of the Lord of Pleasure during the reign of Aenarion,’ Finubar said. He looked at Urian, who suddenly understood why he was here. His scholarship in all matters concerning the line of the first Phoenix King was famous.

‘A greater daemon, a Keeper of Secrets no less,’ said Urian. This was indeed news, Urian thought. If such a creature had emerged out of legend, it was epochal. There were few more deadly creatures on the face of creation. ‘A being unseen since the time of Aenarion. Is someone trying to invoke him?’

‘We don’t know,’ said Eltharik. ‘All we know is reports are coming in from all across Ulthuan about attacks by daemons and their worshippers. There have been at least a dozen so far from locations as far north as Cothique, and as far west as Tiranoc. All of them involve Slaanesh worshippers and evil magic and powerful daemons. In most of them the name of N’Kari has come up either from survivors or from inscriptions on the site.’

A White Lion appeared. He carried a map of Ulthuan. When it was unrolled on the table, Urian could see the location of all the attacks had been marked on the map in red elven runes. They were widely scattered. Too widely spaced for it to be the work of one group, he thought. The distances were too great for any one army, even one mounted on eagles, to cover in the time available.

‘Why now?’ Archmage Belthania asked. She was a tall dark-haired elf woman who did not look her five centuries of age. It was rumoured she kept a stable of younger lovers tired out in her bedchambers. She was known to have a penchant for all manner of hallucinogenic mushrooms as well. It did not prevent her from being one of the sharpest scholars of the Vortex alive, although it kept all manner of strange rumours swirling around her.

‘We don’t know,’ Eltharik said. ‘We are trying to find out. The Council has called a meeting of all the seers and mages in Lothern. Archmages and Loremasters are being summoned from Saphery and the White Tower.’

‘What do you think is happening?’ Malene asked.

‘I have no idea,’ Eltharik replied. ‘There are a few signs that the winds of magic are growing stronger and the power of Chaos is increasing but nothing that would suggest a manifestation by dozens of such powerful daemons across Ulthuan.’

‘Do any of the places attacked have anything in common?’ Belthania asked.

‘We are looking into that. At a guess I would say they are all close to waystones,’ said Eltharik.

‘The pins that hold the Vortex together?’ Belthania looked thoughtful and not a little worried. ‘That could be very dangerous.’

‘The Keepers of the Stones have not reported any tampering with the Great Pattern. There have been no attempts to unmake it, only some strange surges of energy within it and those happen from time to time.’

‘Do they?’ Urian asked.

‘The winds of magic blow softer or stronger. Sometimes there are storms of magic, sometimes absolute calms. The Vortex and the Pattern are intended to channel the energy of the winds so sometimes there must be fluctuations as the levels of ambient magic change.’

Urian considered this. ‘The daemons are not attacking the Vortex though?’

‘As far as we know, no. There has only been one broken waystone found and it seems to have been the result of a lightning strike. There were traces of dark magic visible nearby though and an aura of great evil such as you might find near where daemons have manifested.’

‘Was there an attack near that waystone?’ Korhien asked.

‘Yes,’ said Eltharik. ‘There was.’

‘And it was probably among the first, wasn’t it?’

‘Too early to say yet, Korhien, but it is possible.’

‘But it is definite the daemons are not attacking the waystones.’ Belthania said. ‘They are attacking towns and killing elves.’

‘It is strange,’ said Malene. ‘But who can fathom the thinking of daemons?’

‘I thought someone had to summon them,’ said Urian ‘That’s what all the chronicles say. Some mighty sorcerer raises them for his own purposes.’

‘They can enter the world through the Chaos Wastes when the winds of magic blow at their strongest and most corrupt,’ Eltharik said.

‘But they are not doing so now. You said that yourself.’

Eltharik nodded.

Malene said, ‘Who would do this? Who would summon them? The druchii? The Witch King?’

Urian considered the possibility. He had heard nothing of any such plan. Of course, his master rarely saw fit to keep him informed about such things.

‘If any wizard living has the power to do so, he has,’ said Eltharik. ‘No dark elf armies or fleets are attacking us though, and surely there would be if this was part of one of his plans?’

‘It does not sound like Malekith,’ said Urian. ‘It is not his way. Too random. Too messy.’ He saw a number of those present including Korhien nod their heads at that.

‘A renegade wizard then? A Chaos cultist?’ Lady Malene asked.

‘Perhaps. But the attacks are too wildly spaced to be the work of one mage summoning. The reports are coming in from all across the continent.’

‘Could an army of Chaos worshippers have gathered in secret and unleashed their attacks all at once?’ Finubar asked.

‘The attacks did begin just after the full moon,’ said Eltharik. ‘That is a time of great mystical significance.’

‘Yes,’ said Lady Malene. ‘I was at sea about that time and there was a strange storm. I thought it was tainted with dark magical energy.’

‘Was that before or after the attacks began?’ Belthania asked. She looked even more troubled.

‘It would have been just before, I suspect.’

‘Where were you?’ Belthania toyed with her long black hair. It was still very dark. Urian wondered if the rumours were true about her dyeing it.

‘Off the coast of Yvresse,’ said Malene. ‘Near where the waystone was smashed.’

‘It might well have been in the storm’s path.’

‘It is possible these things were connected. The storm broke the waystone. The daemons attacked there or manifested there.’ Malene knew it sounded weak even as she said it. Urian could tell from her expression. ‘Perhaps they came out of the Vortex. It was weakened at that point.’

‘Daemons in the Vortex? That seems unlikely as well.’ Belthania was emphatic. She did not seem to even want to consider the possibility that it might be so. Urian could sympathise – it was a most unsettling prospect. Still, it was one that they might need to face up to.

‘Perhaps the place was picked by cultists for a ritual? Perhaps the storm was merely a coincidence? Perhaps it provided them with the power they needed to summon the daemons?’ Malene said.

Belthania pursed her lips. ‘That is a lot of perhapses. We need to find out concrete facts. We need to know who is behind these attacks. We need to know how strong our foes are and what their goals are. It is the only way we are going to be able to stop them.’

‘Let us hope we can.’

‘Do you have any recommendations?’ Finubar asked. ‘Is there anything we can do?’

He clearly wanted to know if there was some place where he could order his troops or fleets to go. He was a warrior and he saw things like a warrior.

‘We need to know what the daemon wants, sire, before we can prevent it from achieving its goals.’ Belthania said.

‘Then we had better work that out, hadn’t we,’ said the Phoenix King. ‘And quickly before more lives are lost.’

Urian helped himself to some wine. It was going to be a long night, and he had better make sure he missed nothing. Malekith would want a full report on this.

‘It seems my rebellious subjects are in something of a panic, Urian,’ said Malekith. His gaze burned coldly out of the great mirror beneath the Silvermount Palace. There was a certain chill satisfaction in his voice. He had listened intently to Urian’s report without interrupting once, which was unusual for him.

‘Indeed, sire. They are. Apparently Ulthuan is under attack by a legion of greater daemons. They have returned from the time of legends and are hellbent on destroying the entire island and sending us all beneath the sea.’

‘I sense that you are not in agreement with this, Urian.’

‘As ever, sire, you are correct.’

‘Your simple faith in me is touching, Urian,’ said Malekith, with a trace of his acid humour. ‘What has been the response from the False King’s court?’

‘They are mustering their armies and fleets. They have sorcerers working on divinations. Scholars such as my humble self are scouring through ancient texts. They seek to ascertain the daemons’ purpose.’

‘Do you think they will do so?’

‘Not yet, master, but it is merely a matter of time before they do. They are not without competent wizards here in Ulthuan.’

Malekith nodded. ‘I do not think it is an uprising or a group of invading armies. My spies would have informed me of such a thing and I am sure that in this matter at least the False King is at least as well informed as I.’

‘You think it is the daemon, sire? This N’Kari of legend?’

‘It is possible, Urian. Such creatures do not age any more than I do. If it is N’Kari he will be terrible.’ Urian needed to exert all his self-control to keep from shuddering. He gazed on his ruler with a feeling of something like awe. Malekith had been alive when Aenarion had defeated and banished the Keeper of Secrets. He had walked the world in that time of legend. And if he saw fit to remark that its return would be a terrible event, Urian had every reason to believe it would be so.

‘This daemon, if daemon it be, is moving very quickly around Ulthuan with a very large force. Much faster than it should be able to by ship or road.’ The Witch King sounded even more coldly thoughtful than usual. What was he thinking?

‘Magic, sire?’

‘Magic indeed, Urian and of no usual kind. If a Keeper of Secrets were simply moving itself we could assume it was being summoned by worshippers although this would speak of a level of Slaanesh worship in Ulthuan far greater than any we were aware of.’

Urian was of the opinion that Morathi was fully aware of the extent of the Lord of Pleasure’s worship in Ulthuan, but whether she would share this knowledge with her son was a different matter entirely. ‘You think this contingency unlikely, sire?’

‘We do, Urian. Even if he were being summoned, there is no way he could bring a large force of mortals with him. There is some other form of magic at work here, one that interests me greatly.’

Urian could understand why. Anything that might allow the movement of large bodies of troops around Ulthuan so swiftly would be of great interest to the Witch King. His eventual goal was nothing less than the unification of the two elven realms under his own legitimate rule.

‘You wish me to investigate this matter, sire?’ Urian said, risking much. It was always dangerous to assume you knew what Malekith wanted and always dangerous to speak to him when he had not asked you a direct question.

‘Precisely so, Urian. I want you to keep your ears open for even the tiniest scraps of information about this thing. Nothing is too unimportant to report as far as the daemon N’Kari is concerned.’

‘I will pay scrupulous attention to all I hear concerning this. I will gather all the information currently available and hunt down every shred of rumour.’

‘Diligence will be rewarded in this matter, Urian. Failure...’ Malekith let the word hang in the air. There was no need whatsoever for him to spell out the penalties of failure in his service. ‘Concerning the matter of the twins, do nothing at the moment. This takes precedence.’

‘As you command, sire,’ said Urian.

Malekith placed his hands together and the mirror went dark. The audience was clearly over. Urian was glad. He wiped cold sweat from his brow and helped himself to some wine. He had his work cut out for him.