PART
TWO
IX:
Gathering in Therendanar
'Put
down that fire! Good, and now make it boil, and take good care of
keeping the container always uncovered. We don't want vapour pushing
against the lid, oh, no, we don't want that... One of my apprentices
decided that listening to me was too tiresome and the accumulated gas
blew his eyebrows off... It would have been better if that lid had
aimed for his brains, I must say, although, of course, then there
wouldn't have been anything at all to blow off... Hum, let's see
now... Where did I put those phials? I better look for them around
the fireplace, since heat would ruin them and, of course, where else
would that joke of an assistant I have leave them? I swear one of
these days I will replace him with a rotten abomination from Ummankor
and his own mother wouldn't notice the difference... if he had a
mother, mind you. Ah, you moved them away, boy! Always attentive, I
must say. Pass them to me, I will have him delivering them, if he's
still able to manage and keep his head on his shoulders at the same
time... And it wouldn't be a great loss, mind you... But, on second
thought, I will deliver them myself this time, I must say. I'm damned
if I don't have better things to do,but I need to talk to that thief
of a herbalist anyway. I'll be back later; you are in charge.'
Once
Old Fox left the room, silence took over the place, just disturbed by
the faint noise of the bubbling mixture on the fire. Caradhar
breathed. When Master Jaexias used to speak like that, it was hard to
tell if he was addressing somebody else or just talking to himself;
and though he had got used to those monologues a long time ago, the
young elf felt thankful for the calm. It allowed him to hear his own
thoughts.
More
than eight years had passed since the human had accepted him as his
alchemist apprentice. Caradhar remembered very clearly the day in
which he had asked Old Fox to teach him as much as he could of his
trade, and how he had offered his obedience and industry in return.
The human had found it very surprising; just the fact that the elf
had been allowed to leave Argent City was enough of a miracle...
However, he didn't ask many questions: he sincerely appreciated the
boy, and since he had proved to be reliable, diligent and helpful,
didn't mind to dwell in such a gloomy place as his laboratory, and
seemed to be insensible to the suffocating and foul atmosphere, the
alchemist had judged him to be a good apprentice.
From
Caradhar's point of view, the only thing he could reproach his
learning conditions for was Old Fox's occasional habit of talking
like there was no tomorrow. The first weeks it had been hard to keep
his concentration and manage to tell inconsequential chat from
valuable information. As time went by, the elf had developed a method
of selective listening; this, along with the enjoyment of those
periods in which the alchemist was so engrossed that he barely spoke
a word, had helped him to endure and acquire a vast knowledge of
herbs, distillation, formulation, and all the other aspects of
alchemy.
He
had kept the stolen formula of House Elore'il in a secret place and,
along the years, had tried to reproduce it many times without
success, since it was very indeterminate in the description of some
ingredients and used keywords. But he always persevered, and his
skills improved little by little, until the arrival of the day in
which he prepared himself to perform what he expected to be his
definitive test.
As
in every other occasion, Caradhar had gone out to the low-life of
Therendanar, searching for a reasonably sober beggar. It wasn't an
easy task: a failure in the formula wouldn't mean anything, but a
success, even a partial one, would entail the disposal of a potential
witness.
He
had found one, trying to fish with a crude rod in a stinky stretch of
the river that crossed the city. He had drank the formula and placed
himself besides the beggar, who had cast a distrustful look to the
covered stranger but hadn't reacted in a special way. The elf had
tried then a simple command, but had only obtained an answer that had
expressed, in a very graphic way, a place to which he could go and an
item he could introduce through a certain part of his anatomy once he
had arrived there.
After
having returned to the laboratory, Caradhar hadn't been able to help
but feeling frustrated. What had he done wrong? His transcription of
the ingredients was perfect, he was sure about that; his margin of
error when calculating the proportions was insignificant; he had
refined it, and refined it back again, and yet... He had hold up the
remaining golden liquid, and was feeling tempted to trow it into the
fire, when something had caught his attention. The components of the
mixture, of different densities, were forming fanciful shaped waves
suspended on the fluid. Here and there, the less dense layers tended
to group together, and on the surface, a small spot had projected two
branches that had closed, forming a circle inside which a portion of
more dense and darker liquid had been trapped. That had inspired him
an association of ideas; going through the list of components for the
hundredth time, he had realised that two of them, relatively
innocuous when separated, reacted when mixed and acquired
hallucinogenic and toxic properties. Now, his gifted body was
prepared to neutralise any substance that could prove harmful. Would
that mean he was unable to process the formula in the intended way?
And if that were the case, how would he succeed in testing it?
Still
with all those considerations lingering in his mind, he decided to
leave memory lane and concentrate on his current job. The concoction
he was taking care of had reached its boiling point, so he carefully
removed it from the fire and poured it into a container that he
placed in a safe spot. As Old Fox seemed to be detained with some
other business, he decided to lock the laboratory, after
double-checking that everything was into place, and headed to the
room in which he slept. He supposed it was already dark; in the
alchemists' place, specially in his, there weren't many windows, and
sometimes he'd spent days without watching the sunlight. He realised
it was raining: he could tell by the sound of the waste canal and the
occasional leaks in the upper corners of the corridors. They said the
smell of the foul place had a different quality on rainy days;
although that, the elf could not notice.
Once
in his squalid, windowless room, the young gifted sat on the mattress
serving as his bed, clasped his knees and pricked up his ears, trying
to listen to the sound of water.
Jonshian
Flik, one of the Prince's counsellors, was holding a special meeting.
At both sides of the tall and well dressed gentleman, who was
presiding over the table, several personalities from Therendanar
occupied the adorned wooden chairs.
'...
And, as several of you already know, we have to decide very our next
movement with extreme care,' Flik addressed the audience. 'The Prince
insisted on dealing with it hastily and discreetly. But, for those of
you who are unfamiliar with all the details, the knight Lenkares,
attaché to our ambassador in Argent City, will put you in the
picture.'
Flik
stretched out his hand to his right, to a gentleman even better
dressed than him, with elven details here and there, placid face and
manners, but whose eyes shone with intelligence. He bowed his head as
a way of greeting and slightly leaned on the table, his impeccable
hands resting in front of him.
'Some
time ago,' he spoke, 'The Prince himself approved the establishment
of an outpost, under supervision of the Grand Laboratory, with the
purpose of claiming ownership over a certain area of Ummankor and
proceed to its study. Our aim was to obtain specimens of the
abominations and use them as test subjects to understand how the
valley and the caverns were formed. It's nothing new: several elven
Houses followed our example, and even some detachments from other
human cities tried to establish themselves there. And the initiative
has proved not to be vain: the discoveries achieved by our alchemists
in those deeper areas outweighed the difficulties of the task.'
'A
certain day, the messengers of the study group located in the deepest
area we reached into the caverns failed to report. Afraid of some
misfortune, we sent scouts to investigate and, much to our surprise,
we found our base taken by elves, and no trace of our people. When
questioned about it, the elves replied that they had found the place
devastated, infested with abominations, and without human survivors.'
'Upon
requested to return the base, they refused, claiming that the loses
and risks of cleaning the area of abominations had been theirs only.
Well: to make a long story short, I'll say that the diplomatic
channels with Argailias didn't report any benefits either. As you may
know, the political power in the elven society is very fragmented;
the Prince's House is, of course, in command, but he needs the
support of the noble families. The occupants belong to a House of the
First Circle, and their influence, I am afraid, cannot be ignored.'
'Several
days ago, the scouts found the lifeless body of one of our men in the
original location, not very far away from there. When they examined
the corpse, they discovered something very revealing: an arrow head;
an arrow that happened to be of elven manufacture.'
Lenkares'
speech, commented in whispers so far, provoked on that point an
outburst of indignation among the assistants. The knight Raff-Kein,
main weapon master, stood up, placed his palm on the table with a
strong blow and shouted, in anger:
'I
say, let's pay those pointy-ears back in their own coin: Let's kill
them all and recover what is ours!'
Raff-Kein's
words were supported by several of the assistants, giving rise to a
heated argument. Lenkares waited with patience, his face showing no
emotions. Flik looked at him and then raised his voice, demanding
silence. When the weapon master accepted to sit down and shut up,
Lenkares resumed his speech.
'I
won't go as far as to say we didn't consider the use of strength,
knight Raff-Kein, but maintaining our diplomatic relationships with
Argailias is one of our main interests.' The person in question was
going to protest, yet Flik raised the palm of his hand, in a gesture
of silence. The weapon master grumbled, but didn't say anything. 'I
am just transmitting the Prince's wishes, who exhorts us to find
another... solution to our problem.'
'You
might share with the rest the name of that House that caused the
problem,' pointed out Verella Dep'Attedern, a member of the
Intelligence Cabinet, or, in other words, the spies, and therefore
someone who would very unlikely hear any unknown data.
'Oh,
of course: House Arestinias. As you all know, our relationship with a
handful of Argailian Houses is very satisfactory, but the one in
question... The elven Prince won't take sides against one of the
First Circle, since it could break their delicate balance of power;
much less for an arrow head.'
'However,
coincidentally, another of the Houses showed a great interest in one
of our alchemical discoveries.' All the eyes turned to the Grand
Alchemist, who nodded and invited Lenkares to continue. 'As expected,
they know our present circumstances, and although they can't act
directly against Arestinias, they have revealed us that this House's
position in the First Circle isn't as stable as it should be; a...
tap in the right direction might make them fall, and another allied
House would occupy their place and indisputably restore our rights in
Ummankor. They are offering their collaboration if we are patient
enough to wait for a solution that could take some time.'
'Well,
I think it's a great deal for the elves,' pointed out Dep'Attedern,
with a cynical smile. 'Not only we collaborate in the achievement of
their cunning political interests, but also, they get hold of
whatever they need from our lab. Double prize for them. Won't that
make us look like novices? Furthermore, leaving the Arestinias
business in the hands of the same elves is not satisfactory: my
opinion is that we have to discover their original plot since they
first seized our base in the caves. Let's place our own agents into
the House.'
'I
admit our... business partners will obtain a good benefit from our
agreement,' said Lenkares, 'but it will also give us a new ally in
the First Circle if it succeeds. And about your interest in gathering
intelligence from our antagonists, it is perfectly legitimate and I
share it unreservedly, but we have to admit that it wouldn't be an
easy task to place human agents in an elven House. Or does anyone
have an idea?'
Lenkares
turned to the assistants, seized all of a sudden by an awkward
silence. And then someone spoke; someone who had remained silent and
apparently oblivious to the meeting. Many surprised faces turned to
him.
'I
think I might have one, or at least, a candidate,' said Master
Jaexias.
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