The Silence of Medair

Medair fought the throbbing which seemed intent on bursting her head and, after a sentence or two more, an Selvar evidently realised that she was barely taking in what he was saying. He led her to a cool dark room where there was a couch she could rest upon. A damp cloth was laid on her forehead and he silently withdrew, leaving her to struggle with pain and frustration.

The ache did fade, becoming little more than a dull memory, but the disappointment remained. She was stuck with it. Geas, going to Athere. White Snakes.

-oOo-

As soon as she was able, Medair left the couch. Sitting around reflecting on the setback would only depress her further. Adept an Selvar was in the next room talking to a pale, exhausted pair of mages. He immediately suggested lunch.

"I’m sorry to have been of so little help to you, Miss ar Corleaux," he said apologetically over a glass of very good ginger wine. "We will, of course, refund your fee."

Medair shook her head, still moving cautiously. "The payment is for the effort, which I’d wager was more than you had bargained for. You may have had a busy morning, but I think I’ve ruined your afternoon for you."

He nodded in acceptance, since Medair’s geas had effectively exhausted the seven best mages in Kyledra’s Arcana House. "I am concerned for you – does this geas truly make you travel continuously? What will become of you if it is not broken?"

"It’s not so awful as that. The geas wasn’t designed to harm me, merely to cater to someone else’s convenience. There’s a set destination and the geas will leave me when I reach it. It’s simply tiresome to be going to a place I hadn’t intended to visit. Perhaps, in the next large city I reach, I will be able to try with more mages."

"I would recommend ten." He gave her a delicate look. "In all Farakkan there are perhaps seven people strong enough to have cast that geas, unless I have been giving far less of my attention to such matters than I should. I do not wish to pry, but I would very much like to hear your story."

Toying with her glass, Medair hid a grimace. She liked this man and would be glad to have a long and frank discussion with him about a certain bag of rahlstones and exactly what the Kyledran involvement with the battle for them might be. But she couldn’t outright ask strangers about a fortune in rahlstones she’d found in the forest. Not if she wanted to survive the week.

"I’m afraid I’ve been constrained not to tell people about it," she replied, regretfully, wondering if there was a subtle way to ask questions about rahlstones. "Nor would I be able to enlighten you particularly. I stumbled across a stranger and he put a geas on me to – to deliver a message. I don’t even know what his name is. Who are the seven people powerful enough to have created this geas?"

"Was it in Kyledra?" an Selvar asked, then raised his hands in negation. "I’m sorry. I know that if you try to answer against a geas, things could become very unpleasant for you. It’s merely that something has been happening in Kyledra which people seem to be trying to hide and I spent half the morning talking myself hoarse at the palace, to no good effect. If you’ve been caught up in the same business, perhaps you might be able to help me."

"Happening how?"

"I only wish I knew. An associate of mine – an adept of Arcana House – was called on by the Crown almost two weeks ago. They told him very little of what they wanted – something about smugglers, it seemed, or border taxes. A very confused and frankly odd story they gave him. But he went with them, and was overdue back yesterday. Now I can’t get a straight word out of the palace, for all it’s buzzing like a nest of hornets."

"Well, I haven’t been geased to smuggle anything. Was your associate powerful enough to be the adept who geased me, by any chance? I didn’t think he was Kyledran."

"No, that could not have been Hendist. He hasn’t even sent me a wend-whisper, yet he knows I must arrange for someone to take his classes if he does not return soon."

"It doesn’t sound good."

"No."

With just one of the rahlstones, an Selvar might be able to break the geas. But would he feel inclined to keep the stones secret? Even if he knew nothing about them at the moment, his ties to the palace might oblige him to report her. It was too risky to ask.

"Such deep thoughts."

"I was thinking of ways around this geas," Medair replied. "Who are these seven most powerful adepts?"