The Purifying Fire: A Planeswalker Novel (8 page)

“That’s an excellent point,” Samir said with a nod. “I will appeal to the tribe on the basis of justice. If they persist in their quest for vengeance, they could be responsible for the death of an innocent person. Even a child!”

“Will that argument sway them?” Luti asked.

“Not immediately,” Samir admitted. “Empathy is not an oufe characteristic.”

Luti shook her head in exasperation.
“Oufes
. Even the smallest spark left unattended can make a fire.”

“Have patience for now,” Samir urged, “and give me time. I believe I can persuade them to call off these attacks. Oufes also tend to have short memories.”

Luti sighed, then nodded. “All right, Samir. I have faith in your leadership and your powers of persuasion. We will try to be patient. Meanwhile …” She frowned down at her folded hands.

“Meanwhile?” Chandra prodded.

“Meanwhile, inform the tribe that Chandra has left the monastery.”

Samir shook his head. “If I tell them a falsehood and they find out, then I will lose—”

“It’s not a falsehood,” Luti said. “At least, it won’t be by this time tomorrow.”

“I’m not running away!” Chandra said.

“Of course you’re not,” said Luti. “You are, at my request, leaving on a mission on behalf of the monastery.”

“I am?” Chandra said suspiciously.

“Yes. A mission that only you can accomplish.” Their eyes met. “We’ll discuss the details later.”

A mission that only you can accomplish …

Did Luti want her to planeswalk? Chandra’s curiosity was kindled, but planeswalking wasn’t something they could discuss in front of Samir, so she nodded in acceptance of Luti’s statement.

“So …” Samir looked from Luti to Chandra, then back to Luti. “If I tell the tribe tomorrow that Chandra has left the monastery, I will be speaking the truth?”

Luti nodded. “And if you think it will help cool their rage, tell them Chandra has been sent away as punishment for what happened. That’s not our way here, of course, but I rather doubt that oufes know—or care—what our ways are.”

“Tell them I’m being
punished?”
Chandra was insulted. “I don’t want a bunch of oufes thinking—”

“Does it really matter what oufes think of you, Chandra?” Luti said impatiently. “If it means these disruptive attacks cease, so be it. I just want to resolve this matter as quickly as possible, so that we can give our full attention to dealing with the Order!”

Chandra shrugged and folded her arms. She didn’t like it, but Luti had a point, so she let it go.

“And speaking of the Order,” Luti continued. “Killing that ghost warden has attracted Walbert’s attention.”

“What?” Chandra said in surprise.

“How do you know?” asked Samir.

“The soldiers from Zinara who saw you in the forest,” Luti said to Chandra, “reported what they saw. And the tale was carried all the way to the ears of the high priest of the Temple.”

“To Walbert?”

Luti nodded. “I received a letter this morning from Walbert himself, brought by courier.” She gestured to a sheaf of papers sitting on the table next to her. “A
long
letter.”

“What does he want?” Chandra asked.

“His ultimate goal is to shut down Keral Keep and to outlaw fire magic as we practice it throughout Regatha.”

“He wants
what?”
Chandra said in outrage.

“Of course that’s what he wants,” Samir said. “The rule of the Order can’t spread to the mountains while Keral Keep stands.”

“Precisely,” said Luti. “Oh, Walbert’s letter—which is so long-winded that one can only pity his scribes—he goes on about wanting peace, harmony, and unity; seemingly harmless aspirations. But his righteous language can’t hide the fact that what he really wants is unchallenged rule over all the lands of Regatha. What he wants is total power.” Luti scowled as she added, “He wants power over
us.”

“And us,” Samir added.

“Yes,” Luti agreed. “Over everyone.”

“And to have such power,” Samir said, “to rule over all of Regatha unopposed, to ensure that the Order holds sway over the forests and the mountains, as well as the plains … Walbert must eliminate all
other
power. Or at least nullify it.”

“Particularly fire magic?” Chandra guessed.

“Yes,” Luti said. “If Walbert can quell fire magic, then all the other undesirable practices—the ones he doesn’t like—will become easier for him to control, too.”

“What about this Purifying Fire that you told me about, Samir?” Chandra asked. “Is it really that important to the Order?”

“So people say, in Zinara.”

“Can it be … I don’t know—destroyed? Damaged? Eliminated?”

“What is created that cannot be destroyed? I suppose the answer is yes, but that would mean entering the Temple of Heliud and infiltrating the caverns. One would assume that it is heavily guarded. I can’t imagine they let just anyone in there.”

“It was just a question,” Chandra muttered.

“You’re not going to Zinara,” Luti said firmly.

“What else does the letter say?”

“Exactly what you might expect. Walbert decries the ‘irresponsible’ teachings of the monastery and the ‘dangerous reign’ of pyromancy in the mountains.”

“All because I killed a ghost warden?” Chandra said.

“His letter goes on at some length about the
undisciplined
nature of fire mages and the
destructive
influence of pyromancy in magic.” Luti scowled, her intonation emphasizing those of Walbert’s words that she particularly disagreed with. “Well, if I may paraphrase the great Jaya Ballard: others have criticized destruction, and you know what? They’re all dead.”

Chandra asked, “Is Walbert’s reaction what you meant when you said that destroying the ghost warden might have been ill-advised?”

“Yes,” said Luti. “I’ve never seen one, but I know those creatures are supposed to be hard to eliminate. I thought you might attract Walbert’s attention when you killed it. But I’ve changed my mind about that being ill-advised.”

“Why?”

“Walbert has been looking for an excuse to confront the Keralians openly.” Luti shrugged. “Now that he has found one … I realize that it’s a relief. The growing tension has been exhausting. I, too, am ready for confrontation.”

“But will this …” Chandra frowned. “Mother, have I endangered the monastery?”

“No. Oh, you’ve burned down part of the Great Western Wood, turned the monastery into a target for inept assassins, and made Samir’s life a nightmare of frenzied oufes and disgruntled woodlanders,” Luti said. “But if Walbert didn’t have the destruction of that ghost warden to use as an excuse, then he’d find something else. So I don’t believe that
this
—” Luti picked up Walbert’s letter from the table beside her and waved it at Chandra. “—is your fault. It was going to happen eventually.”

Samir said, “I agree, Chandra. Walbert has been preparing to challenge the monastery for years. If he didn’t feel ready to try to impose the rule of the Order here, he wouldn’t have used the ghost warden’s demise as an excuse.” He added, “Remember, I’ve met Walbert. Nothing he does is done without a great deal of thought.”

“What’s he like?”

“He’s about Luti’s age, tall, gray-haired, thin. He holds himself erect and is very well-groomed. His smile is cold, like his eyes. He speaks in a calm, civilized tone, yet manages to be threatening.” Samir thought for a moment. “The things he says are outrageous and self-serving, but listening to him talk, I’m sure he really believes what he’s saying.”

Luti made a sound of disgust. “Then he must believe that that I can be moved by the transparent posturing in his letter. Does he imagine that the mountain cares, for even one moment, about the shade it casts on the plain? If he supposes that his absurd rhetoric will somehow curb our belief in the power of fire, then he is in for a rude awakening.”

“Oh, I doubt Walbert thinks a letter will cause you to cooperate with his demands,” said Samir. “Instead, I think he hopes the letter will incite you to rash behavior.”

Luti’s angry frown changed to a look of surprise. And then she smiled ruefully. “This is why you’re such a valuable friend, Samir.” She nodded. “Yes. Of course you’re right.
Walbert isn’t just arrogant and power-hungry. He’s also shrewd and manipulative. He will need popular support so he is trying to provoke us.”

“But it’s important,” Samir said, “to give careful thought to your next move. Because careful thought is not what he’s hoping for.”

“Actually, my next move doesn’t really call for that much thought,” Luti said.

“Oh?”

“Walbert demands that I turn over Chandra to him—or, rather, ‘the red-haired female pyromancer who attacked four soldiers of the Order after criminally destroying a ghost warden.’” Luti looked at Chandra as she added, “Which is why I think the first thing I should do is send you away for a while. Someplace where Walbert won’t look for you.”

“So it’s not the oufes you were worried about, after all,” Chandra said.

“Oh, I’m worried about them, too,” Luti said. “Never underestimate just how vengeful an oufe can be.”

T
here actually
is
a mission I’m asking you to go on for the monastery,” Luti said to Chandra as they strolled through the herb garden, having just said farewell to Samir at the eastern gate. “Considering the danger that I suspect is involved, I’d be reluctant to send you, under normal circumstances. But since it’s obviously a good idea for you to be absent for a while …”

“You want me to planeswalk?” Chandra guessed. “That’s not dangerous.”

“According to Jaya,” Luti said, “it
is
rather dangerous. There aren’t roads or signs or maps among the planes of the Multiverse, are there? There are no convenient doors indicating where to enter and leave the Blind Eternities. And I assume there aren’t any heralds helpfully crying things like, ‘Welcome to Regatha!’”

“Well, I guess it’s a
little
dangerous,” Chandra said with a shrug. “But nothing I can’t handle.”

“A place without time or logic. Without physical form or substance. No ordinary person can survive in the æther that exists between the planes. Only a planeswalker can,” Luti mused. “And they say that a planeswalker can only survive there for a limited time. If you become disoriented
and get lost in the Blind Eternities, you might never emerge. Before long, you’d be consumed there and die.”

“They
say?
They
, who?” Chandra said dismissively. “Besides you, who around here knows anything about planeswalkers?”

“Is it true?” Luti demanded.

Chandra looked out over the vast forest below the mountain, and to the plains that lay further east. “All right, yes. I could get lost and die in the Blind Eternities. So what? You, or Brannon, or Samir, could get lost and die in the mountains. The first time you sent me to meet with Samir, I thought I’d get lost and die in the Great Western Wood!”

“Yes, I remember. When you finally made your way back here, you were … irritable about your misadventure in the woods.”

“But the only alternative to taking that sort of risk is to stay home all your life.”

“And staying home isn’t that safe these days, either,” Luti said dryly as she sat on a bench under one of the garden’s ancient olive trees. Her glance surveyed the vegetation. “Goodness, that rosemary really needs trimming! It’s taking over the whole place.”

Not remotely interested in gardening, Chandra sat next to her and asked, “So where do you want me to go?”

Luti folded her hands in her lap. “Kephalai. Which is also part of the danger I’m worried about.”

“Keph …” Chandra laughed. “I get to steal the scroll again?”

“That all depends.”

“On what?”

“On you, I suppose.” She frowned again at the overgrown rosemary, then said, “Brother Sergil and the other monks working on the scroll believe they’ve solved the
riddle. I don’t suppose you remember the decorative border surrounding the text in the original scroll?”

“No. Like I said …”

“Yes, the planeswalker who stole it from us played tricks on your memory.” Luti nodded. “Well, after more days of studying the text, the brothers believe that the decorative border—which they did not copy or study during the brief time that we had the original here—contains the clue to where the artifact can be found.”

“The border? In what way?”

“They’re not sure. It may be a map, it may be hidden text, it may be a spell …” Luti shrugged. “So if you can
look
at the scroll again, you may be able to see the information concealed within the decorative border.”

“And to look at the scroll, I need to go back to Kephalai.”

“If it’s still there. If the planeswalker who stole it from us didn’t take it somewhere else entirely.”

“Even if the scroll is back on Kephalai now, I might not be able to interpret what’s in the border,” Chandra said.

“In that case, the monks would like an opportunity to study it themselves. So you’ll need to bring it back here again, if you can.” Luti looked at her. “If the scroll is back in the Sanctum of Stars now, it will certainly be under increased security. Stealing it a second time will be very dangerous.”