Warautumn Read Free

few breaths later—I was shivering, and others were emerging from nearby tents, also shivering. I called out to Lykkon, but got no reply. I then shouted that I was coming in, but when I looked inside, the place was in complete disarray—which is when I went in search of you. The rest you know.”
    “And you are certain you saw no one leave?” Preedor inquired carefully.
    Forima shook her head. “Not on the side on which I stood, on which lay the only proper exit. I am told there was no sign of anyone cutting a way out elsewhere.”
    “They space-jumped,” Veen concluded flatly. “Simple enough. Zeff would have had to use the master gem in order to wield the sword as he did. We know he had it, because Avall was wearing it when he was captured. Kylin must have sensed its presence as well, and taken a very large risk that he could use it to jump away.”
    “But the thing’s mad!” one of the younger Warcraft chiefs protested.
    “Apparently that madness is variable and subjective,” Vorinn retorted. “I gather that Avall had regained some control over it. And we already know that the gems seem to act to Avall’s benefit, since he’s the one who found the first one. Even mad, it might act—or incite one to act—in Avall’s favor if given the chance. Maybe. I know it’s a stretch, but it’s the only one we have.”
    “And what about what happened in Lykkon’s tent?”
    Vorinn shrugged. “It would make sense for Kylin and Avall to jump back here when they disappeared from Gem-Hold. I would have thought they would reappear in Avall’s quarters, but perhaps they wound up in Lykkon’s because that was where the largest concentration of their comrades was.Or—more likely—because that’s where Rann was—we all know how close he and Avall are. In any case, whatever happened there happened
very
quickly and may well have involved some degree of impulse—even madness, given that the mad gem was a factor.”
    “And what
did
happen?” From a confused-looking Stonecraft subchief named Dessann, who had been asked to join the Council at the same time Vorinn had taken the Regency—mostly to represent Stone, which had lost Rann and Myx.
    Vorinn leaned back in his chair, fingers laced across his chest. “It appears that Avall—and Kylin, Rann, Lykkon, Bingg, Myx, and Riff—and about half the furnishings in that tent—jumped away. We have no idea where they went, but it doesn’t seem to be nearby.” He paused. “No, actually, I
do
have an idea, but it’s only that. We know that the gems often act on pure instinct and will, and I can easily imagine that Avall—if he was in control of the gem, which makes most sense—wanted nothing more at the moment he found himself free than to join his sister, or else his wife. In either case, he’s shots away by now.”
    Tryffon tugged his short gray beard. “But if they went to where Merryn is, and she has the real regalia, they could be back here anytime.”
    Dessann looked even more confused. “Forgive my ignorance, fellow Councilors, but I appear to have missed some crucial information—”
    Vorinn glanced at Tryffon. “No one told him? I tend to forget who knows how much about what.”
    “Apparently not everything,” Tryffon replied, scowling at Dessann. “Where did we lose you?” he asked tolerantly.
    Dessann shook his head. “I know about the gems—all subchiefs do, at least those who came from Tir-Eron. That is, I know their history, and I know that they power the regalia. But this talk of replica regalia and space-jumping, and—”
    Vorinn lifted a brow at Tryffon. “It appears we keep secretsbetter than we thought.” A pause, then: “Very well, to catch you up
very
briefly, with a promise of details filled in later, the situation is this:
    “Not long after Avall became King, he began to feel that the regalia—the magic regalia, I mean—constituted a threat, both from people who might want to steal it and to himself or any successor who might