Once more, night did not come to the valley of the Seven Towers. Ruddy clouds boiled across the sky in ferocious turbulence. The rainbow veil deepened into darker shades that seemed almost to reflect hot embers from beyond. But there was still light.
Inside the Glade, Silvas returned to coaching Felix. Silvas brought the former monk inside the pentagram and activated it, guiding him through the spells that turned it on and off, and protected its occupants. While the pentagram was active, Silvas touched Felix's eyes and gave him the wizard's gift of telesight, along with the warning that Auroreus had not given him. "Do not attempt to look directly at the sun or a star with this vision. It could burn the eyes completely out of your head."
While Silvas and Felix were in the pentagram, Maria watched from one of the protected circles near the wall in the workshop. Satin and Velvet flanked her, in their own circles. The cats were more accustomed to observing this sort of exercise than Maria was. Maria watched intently, both with physical eyes and with the penetrating sense of her shared divinity, linking directly with Silvas while also lightly touching Felix's mind. Her link to Silvas was not affected in the least by the supposed barriers of the pentagram or the traditional spells that Silvas erected to make it a safe haven.
Silvas concentrated exclusively on what he was doing. With the magic of the pentagram raised, he dared not let his thoughts wander. Not only his own safety was at risk, but that of his new apprentice. Felix did not yet have the ability to defend himself in the greater vulnerability of an active pentagram. It was not a long session. Silvas was not ready to involve Felix in anything particularly lengthy, or more dangerous than the constant danger of dealing with magical forces.
"Be very cautious with your first uses of telesight," Silvas cautioned after they came out of the pentagram. "I once tried to look into a star with it, when I was young and new to the gift. Only Auroreus's quick intervention kept me from blindness. At that time, he told me, 'Some visions are denied even to the gods.' "
"Have you thought to test that adage since you became one of them?" Felix asked.
"Not with telesight," Silvas said. "I would attempt it even now only at the most dire need. Sufficient are the challenges I find demanding my attention. I won't seek out superfluous ones."
The three of them descended to the great hall for the evening meal. There seemed to be much less tension at this meal than at the last several. The strangely intimidating sky remained an annoyance to the people who lived under it, but the longer that sky continued as it was without loosing danger on the valley, the less it would be regarded as a fearsome thing. The mood of the people of the Seven Towers was not as light as it had customarily been in the days before Silvas found himself drawn into the feuds of the gods, but the recent cares and sorrows of the Glade were beginning to lift, if only a little.
It might be a long time, indeed, before the common folk of the Seven Towers put Carillia out of their thoughts, but Maria showed the same sort of warm personal touch that had always marked Carillia. The staff had already accepted her as a proper mistress for the castle. Those who had cause to be close to her most were loudest in their praises of her. Maria took deep interest in all of them, and in their well-being. She never misspoke a name, or forgot to ask after family members.
Silvas showed no great cares at table. He conversed casually with Maria and Felix, and found time to speak with others in the hall now and then. If the three at the head table showed no concern over the peculiar sky that sat over the valley, most of their dependents were willing, even eager, to accept that reassurance.
But the servants of the Seven Towers could not eavesdrop on the silent conversations between Silvas and Maria. Those were not nearly as carefree as their audible words and visible expressions, though they went on simultaneously with them.
We have to do more, Maria told Silvas. We can carry our people for now, but the longer the show of sky and music continues, the more it will wear on everyone.
I know, Silvas replied. I've been searching for an alternative.
As have I. They had been looking together as well as separately. Splitting their awareness many ways came so naturally that they scarcely thought of how unusual they would have considered it before.
The only way I see that seems to offer any hope of resolution also leads us into greater danger. Silvas shared the image of that path with Maria. She nodded, a gesture that might have been interpreted by others as a response to a vocal comment that Felix made at just the right moment.
That's what we have to do, then. Simply initiating another conversation with Mikel hardly seems likely to tell us anything. By now, he might be so stuporous that he wouldn't remember his own name.
In the morning then, Silvas suggested. If this show hasn't abated by then, we'll ride back to the Shining City.
Just the two of us, not a whole crowd, Maria amended.
– |After the three of them left the great hall, Silvas told Felix that he and Maria would be gone for at least part of the next day, and perhaps longer.
"Get a good sleep tonight and spend tomorrow going over what I've taught you, in your mind. Don't try anything more active than the use of your telesight, and be careful at that. You might spend some time with Dei et Deae." Silvas smiled. "That's the sort of thing Auroreus always told me when he was going to be busy during my apprenticeship. But don't take every minute to your studies. Look around the Glade and the valley. Get to know our people. Let them get to know you. Tomorrow may be your only day of rest for a long time."
When they were finally alone in their chambers, Silvas and Maria immediately started preparing for bed, and for sleep. For a time, each retreated into privacy, but when they met in bed, they rushed to the link that was always there and reveled in it.
Sleep did come, in time.
Outside, the angry sky show continued. Night did not come to the Seven Towers.
– |They experienced no difficulty in opening up the direct boulevard to the Shining City. Shortly after what should have been dawn, Silvas and Maria mounted their horses and rode out of the Seven Towers. In the gateway, they pictured the road in their minds and called it back into being. Bay and Camiss stepped out onto the road and moved along at a moderate walk. The road no longer glowed, but otherwise it remained as they had first seen it.
"You know, you're simply inviting trouble," Bay said once they were some distance from the walls of the Glade. "Your enemies will see this foray as an affront, a challenge."
"We have to do something, Bay," Silvas said. "If you have an alternative to offer, I'll be happy to entertain any notion."
Bay hesitated before he said, "No alternative save to do nothing but wait and prepare, but this still makes me uneasy."
"It makes us uneasy as well, Bay," Maria said. "But the longer we permit the mockery of the sky to continue, the more difficult the final resolution may prove."
The veil was no barrier at all on the boulevard. Riders and horses were all aware of it, could feel it as they penetrated the curtain, but they went through it without difficulty.
"It will pose as little problem to anyone riding in on it," Bay said.
"I'm not so certain," Silvas replied. "Maria and I strengthened it to purpose. Our work is no barrier to us, or to anyone with us. It wasn't meant to do that."
"And the work that was overlaid on yours?" Bay asked.
"Seems so far limited to the colors of the sky and the battle music," Silvas said.
The sky beyond the veil was normal, with a few white clouds showing in a blue sky. The sun was a couple of diameters above the eastern horizon. Silvas and Maria took a moment to look up into the pale blue sky and revel in the sight. Once the riders got a distance from the veil, they could look back and see the rainbow dome that concealed the valley of the Seven Towers. From the road to the Shining City, that dome did not seem so turbulent and angry, and the valley was not hidden so thoroughly that no trace of its existence could be found. The dome sat like a gigantic bubble over the terrain.
"It hides us from mortals, but not from the gods," Bay commented. "They don't want to forget us so easily, perhaps."
Once away from the dome, Bay allowed his pace to increase a little, being careful not to overtax Camiss. Bay chose the time to stop for a rest. Silvas and Maria dismounted. Camiss wandered to the edge of the road to crop a little of the rich green grass that grew right up to the border of the lane.
"Have you decided what you'll do when we reach the Shining City?" Bay asked. "Do we return to the palace of Mikel?"
"Not immediately, at least," Silvas said. "Maria and I have in mind to find an inn in the outer city, one with some pretentions of class. We'll simply take rooms and wait for a time, travelers come to see what the Shining City has to offer." He made it sound light, but without any attempt to deceive Bay. After centuries together, Silvas would not try that. He doubted that he could deceive Bay, at least for long.
"To see who comes to call?" Bay asked.
"If anyone. Or to hear the gossip, whatever it might be."
"If any will talk around you," Bay said.
"I think they'll talk. The folk of the outer city may well be curious, and in seeking to learn about us, they'll talk to us."
After the rest, Bay interspersed comments through the rest of the ride, until they reached the drawbridge that spanned the moat that surrounded the Shining City. When Bay went too long without speaking, Maria did. Silvas was glad for the interruptions. Riding in silence to the Shining City brought back memories of Carillia, and the way she had made this journey in the back of a wagon so recently. Those memories quickly became painful.
"We'll stop to ask for directions to an inn," Silvas told Bay as they moved onto the drawbridge. Once across the bridge and through the gate, Bay stopped close to one of the gate guards.
"We're seeking one of the better inns," Silvas told the man. "Could you help us?"
"Aye, my lord," the soldier said after a quick appraisal of Silvas and Maria. He gave precise directions to a place not overly distant from the gate. "The sign of the Eye."
"Thank you." Silvas flipped the soldier a small gold coin. The sentry made the coin disappear with the ease of a court magician.
"The sign of the Eye," Maria said after they had crossed the plaza that faced the main gate of the Shining City. "How appropriate."
"Appropriate for us, or for our enemies?" Bay asked.
Neither Maria nor Silvas attempted to answer that question.
"You asked before if I had any alternative to offer to this expedition," Bay said after letting enough time pass to accent the lack of an answer to his question. "I still don't have an alternative, but I do have a suggestion on how to improve on what you said you intend to do with this visit. When we reach this inn, or when you gather a sufficient audience, announce who you are and what you have done, loudly, and ask for recruits. There are plenty of unattached mercenaries to be found here, and you should have no difficulty attaching many of them to you."
That idea had not occurred to Silvas, but he saw the potential. "That will certainly draw notice from the Citadel."
"Which is what you want to do, isn't it?"
"Among other things," Silvas conceded.
The Inn of the Eye was a magnificent structure, covering nearly half the area that the Seven Towers did. An extensive courtyard was enclosed by walls twenty feet high and six feet thick. The gateway was large enough to accommodate two wide drays at once. The gates themselves stood open and showed little evidence that they had ever been closed. The stables and other outbuildings were all of stone, and the inn itself was a three-story stone structure that looked as if it might comfortably house a hundred travelers.
Their arrival did not go unnoticed. Two stable boys ran out to take the reins of the horses-such large and magnificent steeds did not overawe these handlers; there were many such animals in the land of the gods. Other people came out of the main building to watch. It was as if the guests and staff of the inn had been warned that important personages were coming. Nearly two dozen men, perhaps not all merely mortal, came out of the barroom, some with tankards in hand.
Silvas dismounted and helped Maria down from Camiss. Before the stable boys led the horses off, another servant was there to carry the saddle packs into the inn ahead of Silvas and Maria.
"Bay and Camiss require the best you have to offer," Silvas told the stable boys.
"Aye, lord," one replied. "Always the best at the Eye."
"We expect nothing less," Silvas said, and both of the lads nodded quickly.
Is this the pose we want to strike? Maria asked.
To be quickly modified once we establish ourselves here, Silvas replied.
They stopped thirty feet from the door to the inn and looked around. A few more men had come outside. Most of the Eye's patrons looked to be military, even those who wore no arms at the moment. The look was unmistakable to a practiced eye, and Silvas had known that look for centuries.
As well now as later, Silvas warned Maria. Then he spoke to the men who had come out to witness their arrival.
"You may have heard my name. I am Silvas, who destroyed the Blue Rose and four of its gods. I seek stout warriors. Who will join me?"
Silvas felt self-conscious making that plea, though he admitted to himself that it was perhaps the best move that he and Maria could make at present. When he finished, there was relative quiet for a moment. No one immediately screamed to enter Silvas's service, but many of the men looked around at the others in the crowd.
"Spread the word," Silvas said. "I have need of many of you."
Two men came forward and identified themselves as Edwin and Nolwin, brothers. "Our father be a demigod, no longer in service to anyone here," Nolwin said. "We betake much of his strength."
"We'll serve you well an' true, Lord Silvas," his brother added.
"I accept you willingly," Silvas replied. "And your father as well, should he care to join us."
"He be far off from this place," Nolwin said, "or belike he would."
After that, there were others eager to step forward. Silvas raised a hand. "Wait. We'll go inside where we may be comfortable while we speak. If any of you have friends you wish to tell about my offer, go and fetch them. We'll be here for such time as we require."
There was magic to the Inn of the Eye, as there was to nearly every such establishment in the Shining City. The torches that provided light did not smoke, and even a mortal could pass his hand through their flames without being burned. The tables and floor were clean and well made. The walls were painted with murals of such texture and vividness that the scenes they showed seemed almost alive. To succeed in a city such as this, a publican had to offer quality, and difference.
The landlord himself came to wait on Silvas and Maria, seating them at the best table in the public room.
"How may I serve you, Lord Silvas?" the landlord asked.
"A room, care for our horses, and-at the moment-something light to eat and a good wine."
"Yes, my lord, instantly." He clapped his hands, and a serving girl ran off to get food and wine. "May I ask how long you will grace us with your company?"
"Until we complete our business here, I believe," Silvas said, gently, not as a rebuke. "For now, I see a lot of thirsty men. They need ale, or wine, as they will." Silvas pulled several gold coins from his purse and spread them on the table.
There was quite a commotion for several minutes as the landlord and his helpers moved to fill Silvas's orders-and every tankard and goblet in the room. While that was going on, Silvas took two small silver coins from his purse and gave one to each of the brothers who had come forward outside. The obverse of the coins bore the likeness of Silvas and Maria, facing each other. The portraits were so perfect that it was impossible to miss who the faces belonged to. The reverse of the coins showed the Seven Towers. Silvas had just called those coins into being, but the silver in them was pure.
"This is the mark that you have entered my service," Silvas told the brothers.
Before Silvas and Maria left the public room of the inn to see their quarters on the floor above, Silvas had dispensed seven more of the coins, and made arrangements for all who took his service to be housed at the Eye at his expense.
"May I see one of those coins?" Maria asked when they were alone in their room.
Silvas reached into his purse and pulled out a coin without looking. This one was gold, but it bore the same devices as the silver coins. This coin was set in a golden ring, hanging from a delicate chain of the same metal. Silvas handed the necklace to Maria, and after she had examined the coin closely, he took it back and hung it around her neck.
"A token," Silvas said. He kissed her forehead gently.
"I think my father would have sold his soul gladly for the gift of being able to create his own coinage like that," Maria said. "Perhaps it is well he was never offered the temptation."
– |Before night fell in the Shining City-it came normally there, in its own good time, as it had ceased to do in the valley of the Seven Towers-Silvas and Maria had accepted another score of volunteers into their service. Very few of these men did not show the trace of divine, or demi-divine, ancestry, though in most the ancestry was so distant that it gave the men little more than great strength and endurance, and the potential for extended lifetimes. One of the volunteers, in particular, touched Silvas. He was as tall as Silvas, and heavily built-perhaps thirty pounds heavier than the wizard. Though he wore neither arms nor armor, he looked every inch the warrior, strongly muscled and hard. His hair was black and his complexion swarthy, but his eyes were a pale blue. Though he looked to be in his prime, perhaps less than thirty, there was great age in those eyes. He radiated power clearly, even before Silvas and Maria looked closely into him. He was obviously different from any of the others who had taken Silvas's coins.
"I am known as Josephus," he said when he first approached them. "I knew the lady Carillia before she forsook this city for you, my lord. I was the commander of her palace guard, made a demigod for loyal service in the days when Marcus Aurelius was emperor in Rome. I can feel her presence in you and in your lady. The news of her gift to you has traveled widely in the Shining City. Had you not come, I would have sought you out. That was why I returned to this city. If you will have me, I will serve you both as faithfully as I served her."
For a moment, neither Silvas nor Maria responded. They looked at Josephus, and touched the aura of power he wore. He opened himself to them without question or reserve, so that they could see the truth of what he had told them. Josephus had not taken part in the Battle of Mecq. After serving Carillia, he had always spurned serving any of her siblings.
"We accept the honor of your service and welcome you with great respect," Silvas said finally, his voice subdued. He gestured to a chair and waited until Josephus had seated himself before he continued. "You do realize the danger in which you place yourself?"
"I do," Josephus said. "The currents are easy to feel. But I would rather face that danger in your company than in the company of those who hate you. I would not stand apart from this fray as I have from so many others. Command me as you wish."
"I want to add my own welcome to that of Silvas," Maria said. "You are obviously a warrior of the highest ability, yet I detect a gentle side to you as well."
"When the times permit, my lady," Josephus said with a barely detectable bow in her direction. "I enjoy those moments as I may."
"Then let us hope that you will have many of those moments in our service."
"Thank you, my lady."
Silvas took the time then to apprise Josephus fully of the current situation, with as much background as he thought appropriate. He was able to do that in only a few minutes, combining carefully chosen words with a direct connection that was open only as long as both of them accepted it-unlike the routine link between Silvas and Maria.
"This matter of the sky sounds like the work of Gioia, perhaps," Josephus said once he had absorbed everything that Silvas had to tell and show him. "She delights in macabre games, though I've never heard of another instance quite like this. I might be wrong, though. Some of the other gods could have devised this manner of amusement. But it certainly doesn't sound to be the kind of thing that Barreth might do. He has always been direct in action, more so than any of his brothers and sisters-those who survive, at any rate."
"Take a room here in the inn," Silvas said after a moment's reflection. "We'll be staying here to gather more men and to give our enemies a chance to show themselves."
"I've already taken a room, my lord, right next to yours."
Silvas spent most of the late afternoon and evening in the public room of the inn, purposely making himself easily available to anyone who might wish to see him. At times, Maria sat with him, but mostly she spent the time in their room on the floor above, exploring the Shining City in privacy, casting her mind out to wander the streets and plazas, observing the people and occasionally eavesdropping on their conversations. She skirted the Citadel, though, not desiring to intrude there yet. The link between her and Silvas remained fully open, so she was there to see every new recruit through his eyes, to hear every interview, and to offer her comments. And Silvas shared her explorations as well.
As the evening grew late and people started to wander off to sleep, Silvas called the landlord over.
"If more men come seeking me after I retire for the night, give them lodging, as well as whatever food and drink they require, and tell them that I will see them in the morning." He pulled out several gold coins, each with the same devices as the silver coins he had given his new soldiers, and gave them to the landlord. "If that doesn't even the final tally, tell me in the morning and I'll complete it."
"Aye, my lord," the landlord said, bowing repeatedly and avoiding any mention that Silvas had already paid him enough to take over the entire inn for several days.
A few minutes later, Silvas went upstairs. Maria and he went to bed and nestled together, but they did not sleep easily in the Shining City. Their enemies, whoever they were, were too close. In the morning, when they went down to breakfast, not long after dawn, they found that three more mercenaries had come late during the night to offer their service. Silvas interviewed them while they ate, and accepted each.
A few minutes later, a messenger in familiar livery entered the inn and came over to Silvas.
"My master, Lord Mikel, understood that you were in the Shining City. He bade me tell you that you should come to his home immediately if you wish to talk to him before, as he put it, it is too late."