His body, which had been feeling so heavy through all this interview, felt suddenly light. To leave Belzetarn and the personal defeat that each day there represented, to embrace a new goal, a worthy one—Tiamar’s throne!—he wanted it, wanted it so much he felt dizzy. And he thought he saw his way to it.

Keir’s forehead wrinkled. “What?” she said, puzzled.

“The lodestone within the gong possessed no special attribute that permitted you to move troll nodes, did it?” he asked in return. “It provided merely a multiplying of your own energetic power?”

“Ye-es,” she answered, her thoughts still lagging his.

“It was your own skill that healed me, was it not?” he probed further.

Abruptly she understood, her torso straightening, her eyes blazing. “Gael! We have to find that second lodestone! It exists. The gong itself proves those panels recounted history, not mere myth.”

“Hold a bit.” He’d predicted this moment—when his answer would coalesce from thin air—but it all seemed to be moving too fast now. “The other lodestones could be anywhere. How in the north could we ever find one?” he objected. “They could be destroyed, and we would never find one.”

Keir’s fingers squeezed his wrist. “I doubt it has been destroyed. You and Arnoll and Nathiar, between you, could discover no way to destroy the iron boss of the gong. And if it has not been destroyed, then this”—she released him to touch his fingers, still curled around the iron teardrop—“will lead us to it.”

“It will lead us to the lodestone contained within the gong. We don’t know that it is also drawn to its twin, the other one affixed to that airship.”

Keir tilted her head to one side. “We don’t, of course,” she conceded. “Not for certain. But I think it likely that it will. And even if it doesn’t, the other lodestone is out there. Lost, perhaps. But what is lost may be found. The gong was found, even though no one was looking. We will be looking!” She grinned.

“Now will you come with me?” she demanded.

Gael started to laugh. He’d already answered that question in the affirmative, but it had seemed impossible even as he’d said ‘yes.’ Now the impossible had become . . . not easy, but . . . inevitable.

“There’s nothing I want more,” he answered.

Could her eyes blaze any brighter? “Then let’s go. Now! Using whichever is best of your three plans!”

He glanced around him at the dark cell in which they stood, with its meager necessities. The cold smell of stone chilled his spirit, while the shadows dimmed it. He’d almost forgotten where he stood in the intensity of the moment.

“I must tell Lord Carbraes that I intend to depart.”

Keir’s shoulders lowered. “Is that necessary? Or wise?”

“I cannot just scunner out in the night”—it was afternoon, but nighttime went with the metaphor—“as though I were a thief or a blackguard. Carbraes has dealt with me in all honor. I will not recompense him with cowardice and deceit.”

Keir sighed. “He may hold you.”

“He will not,” said Gael.

“Then I will come with you,” she said.

“No!” The denial burst from him. He moderated his voice. “No, you must not. Theron may well have convinced Carbraes of your role in the disguised tin. And Theron was correct. You cannot plead innocence. Your presence before the regenen would be fatal to our aims.”

“And yours will not?” she asked, skeptical.

“It will . . . precipitate matters,” he admitted, “but in a different way. And I—” he felt an unpleasant expression settle on his face “—I will hold Carbraes to my will in this.”

Her brows quirked. “So sure?” she said.

“No,” he admitted. “Carbraes has always listened to reason in the past, but . . . this is different. He would be reasonable in condemning you, and me with you for upholding you. This . . . will require that he be merciful . . . and concerned with his legacy. I do not know that Carbraes possesses such concern. Or such mercy.”

Keir’s face tensed with a strange blend of sympathy and irritation.

“Keir, I must speak with him,” Gael said.

She stayed silent a long interval and then nodded. “When?” she asked.

“Now,” he replied. “I will see him now. And then return to you. Or send Barris or—” he hesitated “—even Nathiar to you. Go with them, if I do so. Will you?”

Her eyes darkened. “Will it mean you have failed?”

“No, it will mean that my plans are shifting,” he answered. “I think we need to move quickly. So quickly that I should not stay longer with you, plotting and planning. Will you trust me?”

She stifled a chuckle. “Gael, I do trust you.”

“Well, then—” He smiled in return.

“Go swiftly,” she said.

He held her gaze a moment and then turned toward the door.

*     *     *
Next scene: coming August 25.

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The Tally Master, Chapter 22 (scene 101)

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The Tally Master, Chapter 1 (scene 1)