Page 90 of Valdemar

Startled, Lord Legenfall stumbled to the right and pressed himself against the wall. The Portal enclosure that linked the Hawkbrothers and Valdemar was sturdily built, but only looked like a well-made guard post across from the Palace gatehouse to anyone who didn’t know its main purpose. It had no guards on it now, of course, though it did have a coating of monster residues probably best not thought about for long. The static Gate shivered and flared for a moment, signs it was about to open.

At the same time, the fluctuating Gate above them dropped like a stone to ground level. It flared and steadied, showing, for a moment, a distant and unfamiliar fog-wreathed city before the entire magic construct silvered over and rippled, its edges included.

Simultaneously, three shadows appeared in the shimmering surface of the static Gate, and one appeared in the surface of the more turbulent Gate.

How in hell are those things managing to stay stable in such close proximity to each other?

:I . . . don’t know,:said Ardatha. :I think the Adept’s Gate is somehow tuned to not interfere with a Tayledras Gate? Maybe?:

Interesting.

The lone figure was joined by a bulky, inhuman shadow, and together they stepped through from there to here. Even when on this side of the Gate, the creature was out of focus, as if at a great distance, and its elongated head showed two yellow eyes. Then four, then six. By the time the count was past twenty, the eyes were moving in different directions, slowly, across the impossibly dark, fanged face and down its neck. Two, then four, then six tails swept in a long arc as it positioned itself in a dominating posture. Even its number of limbs seemed to change, sliding up and out of the utter lack of light its body seemed to be made of. Its neck flared outward on each side into a hood of symmetrical green lines and motes of yellow light as it raised its snout to hiss a rasping, fear-inducing, rising cry. Immediately, everyone on the wall reacted as if they had a stabbing headache, Kordas included.

It’s as big as a horse. That’s the—the biggest wyrsa I’ve ever—it’s immense.

:It’s a mage killer,:Ardatha warned. :It could do more than all the monsters we just faced, all on its own. It’s deadly, Kordas, don’t play any games with that. And—I think it’s a pet.:

The pet’s owner shocked Kordas even more when she stepped around the disturbing creature beside her.

She was of moderate height, and appeared to be poured into an armored dress that accentuated her enticingly proportioned body. Both hands were festooned with rings, and her wrists with bracelets and chains, and it seemed every other one of them radiated light. They cast an uncanny illumination onto a face of what might have been an attractive woman once, but her skin was marked wherever it was visible by divots and cuts, as if tangles of wire had been wrapped around and over her body, tightened, and then ignited. And where those deep gouges were, light showed underneath, as if her bones themselves were casting yellow light. She was bald, browless, and carried devices of unknown origin and use, from short daggers and necklaces of teeth, to a staff carried by a strap of human scalps across her shoulder. But it was the last item Kordas saw on her that stopped his breath.

On her head was a crown, bearing the likeness of seven wolves looking outward.

“What the fuck!” Jonaton screamed, his hands up in exasperation. “Oh, come on!”

Kordas recognized it immediately.

There was no mistaking it. It was the Wolf Crown, the symbol of anxiety and fear for much of his life, right there. Its presence sparked off panic among the soldiers. Technically they stayed at their stations, but they backed up as far from the sight of it as possible.

How could this be? The Wolf Crown was in storage in the tunnels.

:But what if whoevertook it there was a spy?: Ardatha replied, which helped Kordas not the tiniest bit.

The figure, who could only be the Adept, had stepped through the Gate with her focus on the static Gate, but Jonaton’s scream of pure outrage attracted her attention.

She might still have ignored him, but she couldn’t ignore the lightning bolt he called down on her from the clouds over her head.

It was such a massive bolt that Kordas’s eyes were still watering when they cleared enough for him to see the Adept still standing there, untouched, in her shields, which coruscated with a thousand tiny lightning bolts crawling over the surface.

“Iss zat all you can do?” she called mockingly, her voice booming.

That’s the Crown,Kordas recognized. He’d used that trick to warn the entire Capital City that Pebble’s mother was coming to retrieve and avenge her stolen child.

:Shield!:Kordas “shouted” at Ardatha, and grabbed Isla’s hand. Together they threw up a shield that covered both of them, Lythe, Rothas, and Jonaton as she made a rolling gesture with her hands and flung the most powerful levin-bolt he had ever seen at them. It hit with enough force to drive them all to their knees and leave them breathless. It even chipped the Mother’s wall. But they struggled to their feet, and Lythe—well and truly fully awake—was the first to act.

Dagger ants boiled up out of the ground at the Adept’s feet, and swarmed up over—and presumably under—her clothing. She made a gurgling sound of mixed pain and rage.

“Oh, didn’t shield the ground, too?” Jonaton shouted mockingly. “Amateur!”

It took her a moment to gather her wits and her power and send a surge through herself that killed the ants instantly, and another moment for her to shake a shower of dead insects off herself and out of her clothing. In that moment, Kordas heard hoofbeats behind him, dared a glance, and saw the Six Old Men riding bareback on Companions, converging on the staircase up the inside of the wall.

The static Gate shivered, and three Hawkbrothers stepped through, wary and alert: Silvermoon and two who looked to be Elders. None of them were in casual clothing, nor courtly finery; they were armored, with skullcaps of silver and a staff or climbing hook in each hand. Their birds shot through above their heads and made for the wall.

The Magekiller, as it had been appointed, howled in what could only be called delight, and hopped side to side, awaiting command from the Adept.

“Ssilvurrmoon! Reunited at laszt,” the Adept crowed, and the joy in her voice might actually have been genuine. “I am sszo exsscited, I have sszo many new gamessz planned for you. Onessz we just didn’t get to before.” She presented her hands, her rings glowing brighter. Negligently, the Adept flicked a finger at Silvermoon’s bondbird, and Kordas shouted in anger and despair—

But the bird was shielded, and the levin-bolt glanced right off. In the next moment, all three birds landed heavily on the stone behind the parapet, protected for now.