Page 34 of Queen Demon
He eyed her sideways, obviously not lulled into a state where this conversation would be easy, despite appearances. Everyone in the raft picked up on the tension, especially Tahren, who had taken up a position in the back near the shelter and was pretending to be very much interested in the clouds toward the east. Sanja and Tenes had been kneeling up on the bench to look over the side, and both now turned around to watch. Dahin said finally, with only a slight air of accusation, “What do you mean?”
Undaunted, Ziede clarified, “Are we going to steal something, kill someone, free a prisoner, what?”
“Not any of that.” Dahin hesitated. “It’s… research.”
Kai contributed, “I told Ziede and Tahren about your treatise.”
Dahin’s brow furrowed. He absently adjusted the steering column. “You never said if you liked it?”
“I thought you were right.” Kai added, just a touch of teasing, “The prose was a little dry, but it’s a first draft, isn’t it.”
Dahin gave him a half-hearted glare.
“It’s us, Dahin,” Ziede said gently. “You can tell us, we won’t panic.”
Sanja mouthed the word “panic” at Tenes, who signed back,Wait and listen.
Dahin’s shoulders relaxed a little, in defeat or relief, it was hard to tell. He said, “There was a meeting last night in the Rising World Assembly. Seeker Orai from Belith called for an emergency hearing from the council about the expedition that went to Sun-Ar. They sent back messages with their findings.”
Kai hoped it was all right for him to ask questions now because hehad no idea what that meant. The only expedition to Sun-Ar that he knew about was the Enalin one that had returned decades ago. “What expedition?”
Dahin explained, “The one that left two years ago. And there was something about Ilhanrun Highsun helping them.” His mouth twisted in annoyance. “That’s all I could hear. I was up in the writing gallery and a proctor came along and almost caught me and I had to climb out a window. But I heard enough to know that the envoy for Belith, the others on the council, thought it was urgent.” He glanced at Kai. “I read Bashasa’s notes last night and I put the folio in the Chief Archivist’s letterbox at the City Archive, so it’s safe. He described the artifacts he saw in detail. It’s more support for my theories, though it wouldn’t be enough to make the trip without—” He hesitated, clearly conflicted. “I thought I had more time.”
It was reassuring that the folio was safe, but Kai was still confused. “Who sent the new expedition? The Enalin? And I didn’t know Ilhanrun Highsun was still alive.”
“No, no, this was the Scholars of Ancartre in Belith, don’t you remember?” Dahin huffed impatiently. “And of course he’s alive, Kai, how could he help them if he was dead?”
Through her pearl, Ziede said,Two years ago? You were in Nibet and I was helping Tanis in Avagantrum.
That’s right,Kai replied, events now slotting into place. He knew about the scholars of Ancartre. The universities as well as the contents of the libraries and archives of Belith and Palm had all been destroyed by the Hierarchs. Ancartre was where they had been gathering any remnants that had survived, trying to rebuild what was left of the great university there as a new seat of learning for the south.Did you know Ilhanrun Highsun was doing this?
I had no idea he was doing anything, let alone working with mortal scholars in Belith. Tahren had no idea,either,Ziede added. Tahren still leaned silently on the railing, gazing off at the hills in the distance as if uninterested in the conversation. She was clearlyworried that participating or even showing too much attention would make Dahin stop talking, or veer off into an argument.
He did ask for her to come,Kai thought. Which was a good sign. Or maybe it just meant that Dahin knew whatever they would face, they needed Tahren with them. He prompted Dahin, “What does Ilhanrun Highsun have to do with it?”
Kai hadn’t had reason to think about Highsun in decades. He was another Immortal Blessed apostate like Tahren. He had refused to accept the agreement between the Immortal Blessed Patriarchs and the Hierarchs and was imprisoned in ice rock. It was the same punishment that Tahren had been threatened with for turning on the Patriarchs to save Dahin from being consecrated to the Hierarchs’ Well. Highsun had been freed after the Patriarchs who supported the Hierarchs were deposed and disgraced, and he had supposedly left the Blessed Lands.
Dahin let go of the steering column long enough to wave a hand, as if illustrating the vagaries of scholars. “Apparently he came to Ancartre to help unravel ‘mysteries of the Hierarchs,’ or so Seeker Orai said.” He snorted in derision. “They could have asked me. I was available.”
A line formed between Tahren’s brows, and Ziede’s expression tensed. She asked, “Mysteries like what they did with the pieces of the lighthouse they stole from Teramythis or mysteries like how to use the artifacts they left behind?”
“I don’t know. I have no idea why Highsun does anything, obviously,” Dahin admitted. “But these Belith scholars have been in Sun-Ar, following the steps of the original Enalin expedition, trying to locate and speak with survivors of the Sun-Ar people, and—” Dahin stopped, jaw tightening.
They all fell quiet for a moment as the raft flew. Sanja shifted around on the bench, frowning. She said, “I don’t understand. I mean, Sun-Ar’s near where the Hierarchs came from, I got that part. But if someone already went up there and didn’t findanything, why does somebody else have to go?” Her expression cleared. “Oh wait, is there stuff left up there that somebody might steal? Special magic things?”
Kai wondered if Dahin would answer her. This was the key question, the one he had been reluctant to ask, in case Dahin decided it violated their pact. It had to be what Dahin had heard in the emergency meeting that had alarmed him to this point.
Dahin half turned to look at Sanja. Quietly, seriously, he said, “They found signs that the people the Hierarchs came from—the people they were before they started to conquer the world—might still be there.”
Sanja’s face turned incredulous. She looked at Kai, then Ziede, then Tenes, taking in their expressions to make sure this wasn’t a joke. Dahin, to his credit, had shifted into his teaching mode. He had always been a good teacher, particularly with young students. He waited patiently for Sanja to ask, “But the Hierarchs, they’re dead. So these people are just people? They’re not even Witches? Right?”
Dahin explained, “The Enalin who went to Sun-Ar never found these people, or the Hierarchs’ original Well of Power. The Hierarchs had Wells down here that they created, like the dead city you saw in the Arkai, like the mortals trapped by the expositor on the stolen Immortal Blessed ship. You understand those are Wells, created by concentrations of pain and death, yes?”
Sanja nodded, biting her lower lip. “Yes. Ziede told me.”
“We know a few things about the original Hierarch Well in the Capstone of the World, even though we don’t know where it is. During and after the war, scholars, like the people I need to see in Belith, found mentions in some letters and documents left behind by Hierarchs and their servants. We know it was created when the Hierarchs’ people fed the pain and lives of most of the people of Sun-Ar into it. And we know they used the power that it generated to make one of their leaders into the first Hierarch.”
Sanja nodded again, in understanding and a tinge of fear. “So it’s still up there, that Well.”
