The pillars of creation

"But that knowledge still does not set my mind at ease. Something is wrong. I'm telling you, now, my warning, even though I admit that I don't know the cause of my concern. You have but to search my mind for yourself and you will see I'm speaking the truth."

Jennsen had no idea what the Sister meant, but after staring at her for a moment, Jagang visibly cooled. He grunted dismissively as he looked back toward the palace. "I think you're just nervous after a long idle winter, Sister. As you said, you know their tactics and tricks with magic, so if it was something real, you and your Sisters would know it and know the cause."

"I'm not sure that's true," Sister Perdita pressed. She cast a quick, troubled glance at the Wizard's Keep up on the mountain. "Excellency, we know a great deal about magic. But the Keep is thousands of years old. Being from the Old World, that place is outside my experience. I know next to nothing about the specific kinds of magic which are likely to be kept in that place, except that whatever magic is kept there will be dangerous in the extreme. That is one purpose of a Keep-to safeguard such things."

"That's why I want the Keep taken," Jagang shot back. "Those dangerous things must not be left in the enemy's hands to later deal us murder."

With her fingertips, Sister Perdita patiently rubbed the creases in her brow. "The Keep is strongly warded. I can't tell how; the wards were set by wizards, not sorceresses. Such wards could easily have been left untended-no one needs stand guard. Such wards can be triggered by simple trespass-much as with any trap without magic. Such wards can be cautionary, but, just as likely, they can be deadly. Even if the place is deserted, those wards could easily kill anyone-anyone-who so much as tries to get close, much less take the place. Such defensive measures are timeless; they do not wear away. They are just as effective whether they've been there for a month or a millennia. The attempt to take a place so warded could deal us the murder we are trying to avoid."

Jagang nodded as he listened. "We still must untangle those wards so we can gain the Keep."

Sister Perdita glanced over her shoulder at the dark stone Keep far up on the mountainside before she spoke. "Excellency, as I have often tried to explain, our degree of ability and aggregate power doesn't mean we can untangle or defeat those wards. Such a thing is not directly relational. A bear, strong as he is, can't open a lock on a strongbox. Strength isn't necessarily the key to such things. I'm telling you that I don't like this, that something is wrong."

"You have told me only that you are afraid. Of all those with magic, the Sisters are exceptionally well armed. That is the reason you're here." Jagang leaned toward the woman, his patience appearing to be at an end. "I expect the Sisters to stop any threat from magic. Must I make it any more clear?"

Sister Perdita paled. "No, Excellency." After a bow from her saddle, she pulled her horse around to rejoin her Sisters.

"Sister Perdita," Jagang called after her. He waited until she turned back. "As I've told you before, we must gain the Wizard's Keep. I don't care how many of you it takes, only that it gets done."

As she returned to her Sisters to discuss the matter, Jagang, along with everyone else, caught sight of a lone rider racing toward them from the city. Something about the look on the man's face had everyone checking their weapons. They all waited in tense silence until his horse skidded to a stop before the emperor. The man was drenched in sweat and his narrow-set eyes were wide with excitement, but he kept his voice under control.

"Excellency, I saw no one-no one-in the city. But I smelled horses."

Jennsen saw apprehension etched on the faces of the officers at this further confirmation of their disbelief of the preposterous notion that the city was deserted. The Order had driven the enemy forces to Aydindril as winter had descended, trapping not only the army but the people of the city as well. How a place this large could be evacuated-in the dead of winter-was beyond their imagination. Yet no one seemed willing to voice that conviction too strongly to the emperor as he stared out upon an empty city.

"Horses?" Jagang frowned. "Maybe it was a stable."

"No, Excellency. I could not find them, nor hear them, but I could smell them. It was not the smell of a stable, but horses. There are horses there.»

"Then the enemy is here, just as we thought" one of the officers said to Jagang. "They're hiding, but they're here."

Jagang said nothing as he waited for the man to go on.

"Excellency, there is more," the burly soldier said, nearly bursting with excitement. "As I searched, I could not find the horses anywhere, so I decided to return for more men to help ferret out the cowardly enemy.

"As I was returning, I saw someone in a window of the palace."

Jagang's gaze abruptly turned to the man. "What?"