Magnus’s smile broadened. ‘And Mother began doing what you tell her to … when?’ Pug’s wince showed that his son’s barb had hit home. ‘Shall I tell Nakor to make ready?’
‘Nakor is always ready to travel; it’s a legacy of his gambling days. Meet me upstairs in a few minutes. I want a word with Caleb and the lads.’
Magnus departed and Pug turned to the boys. ‘That was bloody work,’ he said.
Jommy glanced at Tad and Zane. ‘It was, but he deserved it.’
Pug put his hand on Jommy’s shoulder. While not properly an adopted grandson like Tad and Zane, Pug had grown fond of the brash red-head and treated him as he did the others. ‘No man deserves such treatment, Jommy.’ He glanced at Zane then Tad then returned his gaze to Jommy. ‘Some men deserve death for what they’ve done, but causing suffering, that harms you rather than the man you make suffer.’ He looked from face to face. ‘What makes us better than those we oppose is that we know when we are doing evil. And it should sicken us. Even if we justify it by saying we serve a larger good, or that it’s necessary.’ Glancing at the door where the torturer was getting Ketlami’s body ready for disposal, he added, ‘It’s the price we pay and while it’s necessary, it does diminish us.’ He looked at each boy in turn. ‘Your only solace is knowing that if you were not part of this, those you love would be at that much more risk.’
He turned to Caleb. ‘I’m thinking you and Marie have not had much time alone since you’ve been wed.’
Caleb smiled ruefully. ‘A fact she has reminded me of from time to time, although she hardly complains, Father.’
‘Things are under control for a while. I’ve got Kaspar down in Novindus with Rosenvar and Jacob, and Nakor and Magnus are going to the Kingdom to deal with the Nighthawks. Right now, we don’t need you.’
Caleb fixed his father with a questioning expression and said, ‘And …?’
‘Why don’t you return home and have your mother give you the orb we use when we travel to our own little retreat? It’s not much – an island in the Sunsets – but there’s a small hut, well provisioned, and you can be alone for a few days.’
‘Sounds lovely. What about these three?’
Pug smiled. ‘Send them along to Talwin. They can guest at the River House, earn their keep for a week or two, and improve their swordsmanship.’
Zane grinned. ‘The River House!’
Jommy patted his friend hard on the stomach. ‘I thought you were going to lose that?’ The River House was the finest restaurant and inn in Opardum, and arguably the finest dining establishment in the world. Zane had developed an appetite for fine food since his mother had married Caleb and he had had the opportunity to sample better fare than he had known as a child.
‘I’ll work extra hard, trust me,’ answered the stocky young man.
‘Well, I’m sure Talwin and his wife will find ample work for you.’
‘What of you, Father?’ asked Caleb.
‘I have a journey I must make, a short one, but one long overdue. Tell your mother I’ll be home in another day or so, but not to wait for me; she should go to Kelewan and see what the Assembly is doing with the Talnoy.’
They embraced, and Pug waved goodbye to the four of them, and vanished.
Jommy shook his head and sucked in his breath. ‘Crikey, I’ll never get used to seeing people just vanish like that!’
Caleb laughed. ‘You’ll get used to a lot of things before you’re done, my lad.’ He pulled an orb out of his tunic and said, ‘We’re off home: then you three are going to Olasko!’
Glancing at the door into the torture room, Tad said, ‘I’m glad we’re done with this part of it, that’s for certain.’
Without another word, each put a hand on the next man’s shoulder, while Caleb activated the orb, and they vanished as well.
A vast presence was veiled in darkness, its form barely recognizable in the faint light emanating from a single lantern set within a sconce on the opposite wall.
A voice spoke without sound: Welcome, Pug of Crydee.
Pug smiled as he said aloud. ‘I haven’t been called that in years, m’lady.’ He knew the presence required no honorific, and that the one he chose was barely appropriate, yet he felt the need to convey respect.
‘As you wish, magician,’ said the deep voice. ‘Do you wish more light?’
‘That would be agreeable,’ Pug replied.
Suddenly the room was ablaze in light, as if the sun shone through glass walls. Pug glanced around, for he had not visited this chamber in years. It was a cavern, deep beneath the city of Sethanon, where Tomas had bested a conjuration of the Dragon Lord Drakin-Korin, and Pug and others had battled to seal a rift that threatened to destroy all of the Kingdom, if not the world of Midkemia.
The being before him was the body of the great dragon, Ryath, but the mind housed in it was that of an ancient being: the Oracle of Aal. In that epic struggle, the dragon had given everything in defeating a Lord of the Dread, and it had taken magic of unmatched power and skill to keep a spark of life in the body after the mind and spirit had fled, so that the Oracle could find a living host. The dragon’s natural scales had been obliterated and a makeshift solution had turned the creature into a being of unsurpassed magnificence. The great Dragon Lords’ treasure secreted below the city ages before had provided gems used to repair the damaged scales, forming a creature unmatched in majesty and power in this world, a great jewelled dragon. Light danced off the facets of thousands of stones and the creature seemed to glitter as if moving, even when she rested, motionlessly.
‘The cycle of renewal has ended well?’ asked Pug.
‘Yes,’ answered the Oracle. ‘The cycle of years has passed and again I possess all my knowledge.’ She sent out a mental call, and a dozen white-robed men entered the room. ‘These are my companions.’
Pug nodded. These men had come to understand the nature of the great dragon of Sethanon, and had volunteered to give up their freedom in exchange for a lifespan many times normal, and the honour of serving a greater good.
For the Oracle was more than a simple seer. She possessed the ability to see many possible outcomes that might result from a given choice, as well as alert those she trusted to the approach of grave danger. And she trusted no one in this world as much as she did Pug. Without his intervention, the last of the race of Aal – perhaps the eldest race in the universe – would have perished a century before. Pug inclined his head in greeting to the Oracle’s companions and they returned the honour.
‘Do you know why I’m here?’ asked Pug.
‘A grave threat approaches, faster than you think, but …’
‘What?’ asked Pug.
‘It is not what you think it to be.’
‘The Dasati?’
‘They are involved, and are the primary cause at this point, but there is a much larger danger behind them.’
‘The Nameless?’
‘More.’
Pug was stunned. From his perspective, there could be nothing ‘more’ in the universe than the Greater Gods. He gathered his wits. ‘How can there be a greater threat than the Nameless?’
‘I can only tell you this, Pug of Crydee: across the expanse of time and space the battle between good and evil transcends all else.
‘What you perceive is but the smallest part of this struggle. It is ageless, begun before the first of the Aal rose from the mud of our homeworld, and it will endure until the last star is extinguished. It is part of the very fabric of reality, and all