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It was more a warning to Magda than an explanation to Quinn. Magda got the point, but it wasn’t really needed. She knew that she was nearing the end of her strength. It was only her worry after what she had learned from Naja that was driving her on at the moment. Her stomach felt like it was in a knot.
“I can see that,” Quinn said, a look of concern creasing his brow as he leaned in toward Magda, looking into her eyes for any sign of the trouble. “What happened? How were you hurt?”
Magda smiled to dispel his concern. “That’s not important at the moment. We have more urgent business right now.” She looked toward Naja, signaling what she meant. Quinn got the message.
Naja had turned, transfixed by the liquid silver hump of the sliph rising up out of the well that contained her. The swelling bulge of what looked like nothing so much as polished, highly reflective, liquid silver began to rise up until it formed into a head with the aspects of a human face.
The quicksilver features resolved fluidly into those of a beautiful woman. A pleasing smile formed in the expression of what looked like nothing so much as a silver statue that was the sliph, except that it always seemed to be moving.
“Do you wish to travel?” the sliph asked, her silvery voice echoing around the round room.
“No,” Magda said in a blunt tone. “We don’t wish to travel.”
“You will be pleased,” the sliph said.
“Thank you, but not now,” Merritt said on his way past as he helped Naja toward the chair.
“I’ve heard rumors of such a creature, but I never imagined she was real,” Naja said as she dragged Merritt to a halt in order to stare at the silver face watching her.
Quinn cast a rather fond look at the creature in the well. “She’s real, there is no doubt of that. She likes to watch me record things in my journals as I watch over her.”
“May I touch you?” Naja asked the sliph as she stepped close to the waist-high stone wall of the sliph’s well.
“If it pleases you,” came the haunting reply.
Naja reached out and carefully touched her fingers to the gently rolling silver surface. The sliph watched. Feeling no ill effects, Naja submerged her entire hand below the surface.
“You have both sides,” the sliph said with a satisfied smile. “You may travel.”
“Thank you, but I don’t wish to travel right now,” Naja said. “Maybe another time.”
“When you are ready, I will take you where it pleases you.”
Naja looked back over her shoulder at Merritt and Magda. “This is remarkable.”
Magda folded her arms. “That’s one way to put it.”
Magda held no favor with the sliph. Not only had the sliph often taken Baraccus away, she took him away as she cooed to him and made gentle promises that he would be pleased.
Baraccus had told Magda that it was just the nature of the sliph, that it didn’t mean anything, and that in any event, there was nothing that could be done about it. Magda still hadn’t liked the manner in which the perfect quicksilver face had spoken so intimately to her husband. Of course, the sliph talked to everyone that way. Baraccus was right, it was her nature. That didn’t make Magda feel any better about it.
The sliph had even talked to Magda the same way when Magda had needed to travel. She wasn’t gifted, as was required, but Baraccus had instilled in Magda some bit of magic that enabled her to travel. Traveling was at once a wildly exhilarating and a terrifying sensation. She hoped never to have to experience it again.
Naja withdrew her hand and stepped away from the well. “No, you don’t understand. What is remarkable is that this creature has been altered in a similar way to the half people. Her soul has been fragmented.”
Quinn swept his sandy blond hair back. “Half people? What are half people? What are you talking about?”
Merritt held a hand up. “Listen, Quinn, we have problems.”
Quinn’s features took on a serious cast. “So then you’ve heard the rumors that Prosecutor Lothain is going to be named First Wizard? Is that the trouble you mean.”
“That’s not the problem I was referring to,” Merritt said.
“And it’s not a rumor,” Magda told him. “It’s true.”
Quinn’s serious expression turned worried. “Is it really going to happen tomorrow, as some say?”
“Tomorrow? I haven’t heard that part of it,” Magda said. “What have you heard?”
“There’s a lot of rush planning going on. Something big is in the works for tomorrow afternoon in the council chambers. I don’t know what, but it only makes sense that it would be the naming of the new First Wizard.” As he gestured to Naja, his eyes again took on that discerning look that Magda knew so well. “Now, what’s this about half people? What are half people?”
Before Naja could speak, Merritt did. “Quinn, we don’t have time to explain it at the moment. Right now I need you to listen and do something for me.”
Quinn shrugged. “Sure, Merritt, you know I will. Just tell me what you need and consider it done.”
Merritt pulled Naja forward by the arm. “I need you to heal Naja for me. You’ve always been better at healing than me anyway. I have some important things to do that can’t wait. Once you’ve healed her, she can explain why she’s here, about the half people, and the trouble we’re in.”
Quinn glanced at Naja’s face briefly and back to Merritt. “Well, I’ve never seen her before. Can you at least tell me who is she? And how she’s involved in what’s going on?”
“I was Emperor Sulachan’s spiritist,” Naja said before Merritt could explain. “I came here to help your people stop him.”
Quinn’s brow lifted. “You’re the defector I’ve heard rumored? I could never find out anything about you. People said that it must be gossip and nothing more.”
“Not gossip, real.”
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“Did you get injured escaping, then?”
Naja fixed Quinn a serious look. “When I came here I was captured. Men said that I was a spy and sentenced me to death. They tortured me. That is how I was hurt.”
“Who did such a thing?” Quinn demanded, looking from one face to another. “What men?”
“She doesn’t know who they were,” Magda told him.
“They were torturing her to find out if she knows who the traitors in the Keep are and if she has others with her,” Merritt said. “They must be worried about being discovered.”
“And do you know?” Quinn asked Naja.
Naja looked genuinely downcast. “No. I’m sorry.”
Quinn ran his fingers back through his hair as he walked off a few paces, considering what he’d been told. “This is the very thing I’ve been worried about. I’m convinced that there are traitors, or at least spies in the Keep.”
Magda and Merritt shared a look.
“Do you have any information about such traitors?” Merritt asked. “Have you heard anything from all the wizards and important people who come through here to use the sliph?”
Quinn turned back to them. “No, no one knows anything. I have my suspicions, but I don’t have any evidence to base it on. With the war going badly people are making a scapegoat of Baraccus. You know me, Magda, and you know that I believe that Baraccus was our greatest champion, but people are beginning to believe Prosecutor Lothain’s contention that Baraccus was responsible for conspiracies that have harmed our war effort. He thinks those conspiracies are the source of the murders at the Keep. Lothain has been asking a lot of questions about Baraccus, trying to find out if he was working with enemy agents.”
“I know,” Magda said. “I’ve heard the accusations.”
“A lot of people are starting to listen to Lothain’s theories because he has been right so often and so successful at uncovering traitors no one would have suspected. Fortunately, there are still a lot of people who don’t believe it. It seems the whole Keep is in turmoil over the discord. From what I’ve heard, that friction is beginning to become a problem.”
