‘I hope so,’ she answered. ‘You did a masterful job of underplaying the menace at just the right time, so as to make them look even more dire.’ Her features darkened. ‘Though I really don’t know how much more dire things can be.’
‘The Dread can not be truly killed. The Dreadmaster Pug and I captured in the City Forever is almost certainly still alive, if someone hasn’t freed him.’ Tomas glanced over at the discussions. ‘There will be many questions for me to answer tonight. May I stay here?’
‘Of course. You never have to ask. You are family.’
‘More than ever, I wish Pug were here. His knowledge of what we face might be better than my own.’
She said, ‘I know one thing: you can’t wish him back any more ardently than I do.’
‘Of course.’
She said, ‘In all of this, I can’t escape the feeling that somehow everything is interconnected. The arrival of those creatures near the Quor, and the Dasati. Can it be possible that before he fled Varen was also trying to fetch creatures from the Void to this world?’
‘Anything is possible. Varen is by any measure insane. But he is a servant of the Nameless, and while the Nameless is often content to inflame his servants and send them out to cause mayhem, he would never be so foolish as to think the Dread in this realm could serve him. The gods above all others are foe to the Dread, for the gods represent the essence of our reality and the Dread are as far removed from our reality as anything in the universe.’
‘When you go to study that Dread you have locked away,’ said Miranda, ‘I want to come with you. I need to know if there’s a way I can kill one, or at least get rid of it.’
Tomas agreed. ‘Now,’ he added. ‘I should talk to some of these men of power and influence.’
‘When do you seek the Quor?’ she asked.
‘Soon, in a matter of days. Why?’
‘Because I would like to go with you.’
‘We’ll see,’ he answered as he turned away. ‘There are tilings it is sometimes better not to know.’
She could only nod in agreement. How well she knew that.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN - Investigation
PUG VANISHED.
Martuch had been expecting it but still he went wide-eyed when Pug cast his spells. The decision to seek out Nakor and Bek had already been made when more reports of what had occurred on Kelewan reached them. Agents of the White passed along snatches of information throughout the afternoon, and into the evening. Alone, each of these snippets provided a glimpse of the situation, but when put together, the result was horrific.
Three columns of attackers had been inserted into Kelewan by Dasati Deathpriests creating a rift-like ‘portal’ that allowed dozens of Deathknights to pass through each minute. Three locations in the Holy City had been targeted: the council chamber in the palace, the wing set aside for the First Advisor and all other ministers and their aides, and the heart of the merchants’ district.
Pug knew instantly that the Dasati had derived their intelligence from Leso Varen. The Dasati would have seen the wisdom in destroying the leadership and surrounding bureaucracy but the assault on the merchants would have been beyond their imagination. There was nothing remotely resembling a merchant class in this realm, and the concept of disrupting the financial underpinnings of the Empire would be so alien to them that it could only have come from Varen.
Pug’s mind was spinning. If he could discover who was in touch with Varen here, then perhaps when he returned, if he returned, he might be able to find the malignant butcher.
Martuch said, ‘This is madness.’
Pug laughed. He found himself suddenly unable to stop laughing. Hirea and the two Lessers who served the White stood in obvious shock at the sound coming from the seemingly empty air. The effect was doubly troubling, for not only was the source of the sound not apparent but, to the Dasati mind, laughter was closely linked to pain and death.
‘Father, what is it?’ asked Magnus, and Pug’s laughter stopped.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Pug. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. ‘I was suddenly struck by the enormity of what we have to do and then to have Martuch call it madness… everything we have encountered since the advent of Leso Varen has been wholesale madness. So I was overcome by a sense of how mad must it be for what we’re doing now to be singled out as madness in the midst of all this other insanity. I don’t know why it struck me as funny, but it did.’
Magnus said, ‘You’re just tired, Father.’
‘We all are.’
Hirea said, ‘I see no humour here.’ He stood up from where he had been sitting quietly. ‘If you must do this thing to reach your friends, it is best we do it soon. There is a very small amount of time left before our presence anywhere near the Palace Guards’ enclave will be noticed.’ Without another word he climbed the ladder to the trapdoor. He lifted the door and peered about, making sure no one was in that part of the grove before continuing up.