Death of an Adept

"No one is forgetting," Raeburn said patiently, "but it seems I must keep reminding you that the Hunting Lodge have nothing of substance to go on. Such evidence as does exist points only to Taliere - and as long as we have him under wraps, that evidence won't get them very far. So let them keep spinning their wheels by attempting to track him down. By the time we're finished with him, he'll be of no further use to anybody. Do I make myself understood? Good. Then let's get down to the business at hand."

The others had moved closer while Barclay arranged more chairs in a semicircle in front of the desk, and Raeburn gestured for them to be seated.

"Now," he began, "the operation at Callanish was always a calculated gamble. Though that gamble failed to pay off, we have by no means exhausted our potential for success. On the contrary, Callanish was only the opening gambit of the game. I have been reviewing our position, and have come up with an alternative strategy which promises to yield even higher returns than our original plan."

"It had better," Richter said. "We are playing for very high stakes."

"I'm well aware of that," Raeburn agreed. "But we've come too long a way to waste our energies thus far - and I believe we can build on what we have achieved.

"Our error at Callanish was in trying to make direct contact with the lord Taranis. Taliere was not equal to the challenge, and the intermediary he brought through was less than helpful - which is no fault of Mr. Barclay's," he added, with a nod at the pilot. "The problem was compounded by the fact that Taliere and I differed from the outset in our notions of how the procedure should be approached; and the compromise we reached proved less than satisfactory. I will not compromise again."

"Can you explain how the Head-Master came to be involved in the operation?" Richter asked neutrally.

"No, I cannot. He'd become very unbalanced just before his death, but he was the last person to harness the power of the Soulis tore - and the last wielder of the dagger before myself. I would venture to guess that the dagger drew him to our working - which tends to confirm that it can be made to function as the tore did. As to his tirade during our ritual, I can only attribute it to the demented ravings of a tormented soul. He was quite mad by the time Taranis took him to his own."

"Mad or not," Richter replied, "he still possessed the ability to focus the power of the tore - and presumably the dagger. How do you propose to gain his cooperation?"

"I don't," Raeburn said simply. "I know of another who was able to do what the Head-Master was able to do, and that is the same Lord Soulis whose name came to be associated with both the dagger and the destroyed tore. Indeed, the Head-Master claimed to have derived his knowledge from Soulis."

"Ah." Richter's eyes had narrowed as Raeburn spoke. "Perhaps you should further acquaint us with this Lord Soulis."

Raeburn inclined his head in assent. "Certainly. I should tell you, first of all, that in his day, William Lord Soulis was known as 'the wickedest man in all Scotland' - though that sobriquet was bestowed by his enemies, who did not understand his work. He had his seat at Hermitage Castle, down in Liddesdale, and accounts surviving from his own lifetime relate how he used the cellars of the castle as a temple to his magical arts. Personally, I would draw the line at sacrificing young children - or at least torturing them - but Soulis apparently exercised no such restraint. Or perhaps his demon familiars demanded such oblations, and Soulis was willing to pay that price for their favors.

"One of his familiars is said to have used its powers to render Soulis invulnerable to the weapons of his enemies, who otherwise would have brought him to justice. It was known as Redcap Sly or Robin Redcap, so-called from its practice of dyeing its cap in the blood of its victims."

"What does this have to do with the tore and the dagger?'' Mallory asked. "Calling on familiars is all very well and good - I can do that - but Taranis is no mere familiar like Redcap; he's an elemental lord."

"And Soulis was a sorcerer of immense power," Raeburn replied. "It is a matter of record that he was able to bind and control a number of infernal spirits, and we know that he had control of the tore and the dagger. Since we also know that Soulis was the source of the Head-Master's knowledge of how to invoke Taranis, it occurred to me to wonder whether Soulis himself might have been able to go that one step further."

Angela stiffened - apparently first to seize upon the significance of what Raeburn was implying.

"Are you saying," she said, "that you think Soulis might have found a way not simply to invoke Taranis, but to bind him?"