Humourlessly, Miranda said, ‘A successful attack on the Emperor.’
The room fell quiet. After a moment, Miranda said, ‘I can do nothing more here. We have a situation on Midkemia which may be another aspect of the monstrous danger we all face here. You know how to reach me should you have need.’
Without farther word she willed herself to the rift chamber, entered the rift and was back on Midkemia. A black-robed student looked up with a mildly interested expression at her sudden arrival. By agreement, the rift to the Assembly was still with the Academy on Stardock Island, not on Sorcerer’s Isle. Politics aside, it was a better situation for protecting the privacy of those in the Conclave. Still, some accommodation with the Academy had to be reached. It galled Miranda that this vast university of magic that her husband had founded and built was now in others’ hands, and that those others did not always agree with Pug in his judgments. Not that she always did, either, but she was his wife and she valued his thoughts even when she decided he was wrong.
She put aside her chronic annoyance at how her husband had been treated by those he raised and made a half-hearted greeting to the young student, then vanished from view. In one area of magic, Miranda was supreme: in her ability to will herself to almost any where she had ever visited. Almost every other magician on both Midkemia and Kelewan needed a device that had been calibrated to take them to a specific location, and the Tsurani artificers were the very best at building such devices. Others, like Pug, could will themselves to patterns, to complex geometric shapes set in tile on the floor of a certain place, a widespread practice on Kelewan, and in limited use on Midkemia – the religious orders had been quick to adapt the magic for use as a means of getting their clerics from one temple to another, but it did no good to outsiders unless you offered a hefty ‘votive offering’ or as Miranda preferred to think of it, a bribe, to utilize their patterns.
But Miranda could just see a place and go there. She didn’t truly understand how she did it, which is why she had such great difficulty teaching others the knack. Magnus was her best student. Miranda thought in time he would be as adept as she was, perhaps even more so, at willing himself to a place previously visited. Still, Pug had been making progress. Nakor claimed he couldn’t do it, but she was certain he lied. She found him as amusing as her husband did, but she never had and never would trust him the way Pug did. There was something about that little man, something hidden deeply within, that was just not right. Still, her husband had put his life in Nakor’s hands many times and never had the little gambler failed to rise to the need of the moment, but even so she feared that some day she would lose Pug because of someone like Nakor, someone with a secret agenda of his own.
Miranda appeared in her study and found Caleb asleep behind the desk. She felt a warm maternal twinge seeing her youngest child in slumber and remembered for a brief moment when he was a baby, in her arms. She took a breath and pushed the emotion aside. ‘Caleb, go to bed!’
He almost jumped out of the seat. ‘Huh?’
‘Go to your suite. I’m sure Marie would like to see her husband from time to time. I have work to do.’
‘What time is it?’
‘I have no idea,’ she said, glancing out the window. ‘It’s night. It was mid-day when I left the Assembly about five minutes ago, so I’m not sleeping any time soon. While your father and everyone else is out saving the world, there are mundane matters to be addressed.’
‘I know,’ said Caleb, then he yawned. ‘I’ve been tallying the revenues from Father’s estates and holdings and reviewing some of the projects that have been waiting for weeks. And we’ve got to start deciding when we’re taking new students again, and… just so many things.’ He pointed to a large stack of papers and parchments, and said, ‘But at least all that business is done.’ He picked up a sheaf of documents and said, ‘And these can wait.’ Pointing to the pile he had rested his head on when he was asleep, he said, ‘But these last few items need to be seen to at once.’
‘Good. I’ll finish and you can get back to being a hunter or whatever you want tomorrow morning. Now go.’
Caleb kissed his mother’s cheek and left the room. Miranda sat in her husband’s chair, still warm from her son occupying it, and wished as much as she ever had that Pug was back. She hid it deeply, but she was frightened, and what frightened her the most was the thought she’d never see her husband again.