Sky Trillium. Julian May

Anigel said with a sigh. ‘But hardhearted.’

      ‘Nonsense,’ said the Lady of the Eyes, taking a goodly helping of bittercress salad and pouring rich cheese dressing over it. ‘One must sympathize with the troubles of others, but not to the point of impairing one’s own good health – especially if one has duties of state to perform. Don’t you agree, Hara?’

      The Archimage inclined her head. ‘My talisman refuses to confirm my suspicions, but I believe that Iriane’s imprisonment may be only the beginning of a new time of peril for all of us. The return of the Star Guild, and the possibility that Orogastus may be gathering weapons of the Vanished Ones, poses a grave danger to the peace and good balance of the world. It may be that we Three will once again be called upon, and if this be so, then we will need all of the physical and mental strength we can muster. And you, dearest little Sister, have important personal obligations as well.’

      Queen Anigel received this admonition in chilly silence. But she began with obvious reluctance to eat.

      The triplets were at dinner in Ruwenda Citadel, seated at the high table with the Queen presiding, while others of the court feasted at lower boards in the torch-lit great hall. There were many persons missing – including King Antar and his military advisers – and the usual cheerful conviviality attending the evening meal was absent. Less than an hour earlier, the magic of Haramis had transported Kadiya and herself to the Citadel, where they had reported to the Laboruwendian court not only the misfortune of the Archimage of the Sea but also the apparent resurgence of the Star Guild under the leadership of Orogastus.

      The latter piece of news had caused a furore, since only a single day now remained before the departure of the royal entourage on the long journey to Labornok. King Antar, Marshal Lakanilo, and General Gorkain had sequestered themselves in order to make hasty plans for increasing the security of the train, leaving the Queen and her two sisters to speculate upon what the dire events might portend.

      ‘At the present time,’ the Archimage said, ‘only the Lords of the Air know what Orogastus’s long-range plans might be. But we can be assured that they involve the conquest of the world – both by physical means and by dark sorcery.’

      Anigel added more crystallized honey to her cup of darci tea and stirred it morosely. ‘I find it hard to believe that once again that evil man has cheated death. Who would ever have thought such a thing possible? Hara, how could your talisman have deceived you about his fate?’

      It was Kadiya who made the unpalatable reply. ‘The talisman spoke true – only the Archimage misinterpreted its words.’

      Haramis admitted the accusation with a doleful nod. She brought forth the portrait of Orogastus and put it on the table before them. ‘When I requested a view of his dead face, the talisman could not comply. Only when I worded the command differently, avoiding the mention of death, did it show me his likeness so that I could fashion this picture.’

      Now the Lady of the Eyes cried fiercely, ‘Damn that wizard! For all we know, he has already found the star-box and bonded Ani’s Three-Headed Monster to himself!’

      ‘No,’ Haramis stated positively. ‘My talisman indicates that he has not. Some other person has the coronet and the box – but the Circle will not tell me who.’

      Kadiya took up her tableknife and with precision sliced a drumstick from the succulent roasted togar on the platter before her. ‘You may wager platinum to plarr-pits that Orogastus will seek out this coy new magician and attempt an alliance.’

      ‘You are probably right, Kadi,’ Anigel said. ‘And this is all the more reason why you should heed Hara’s counsel, and give up your own impotent talisman into her safekeeping so that neither villain gets hold of it.’

      ‘Never!’ Kadiya said through her mouthful of meat. ‘Even though the Three Moons tumble from the firmament!’

      ‘Oh, Kadi,’ cried the exasperated Queen. ‘It is the only safe course and you know it.’

      ‘All very well for you to say,’ muttered the Lady of the Eyes, pointing in accusation with the fowl’s legbone, ‘having given up your own talisman to Orogastus in ransom – ‘

      ‘Thus saving the life of the King my husband!’ Anigel exclaimed in high dudgeon. ‘Should I have let Antar die in captivity?’

      ‘You did not give Hara and me time to rescue him,’ Kadiya retorted, ‘but capitulated to the kidnappers with unseemly haste, opening the way to the invasion of your kingdom.’

      Very quietly, so that none of the other supping courtiers noticed, the Queen began to weep. ‘You are right. I was at fault – but so are you. Your Three-Lobed Burning Eye is sure to be stolen by Orogastus or this unknown wizard sooner or later. My own foolishness and your stubborn vainglory may yet doom us all.’

      ‘For shame, Kadi,’ the Archimage said, taking her youngest sister in her arms. ‘Have you forgotten that Ani is with child and should not be upset?’

      ‘She is as rugged as a draft-volumnial dropping its yearly calf, for all her fragile looks,’ Kadiya remarked callously. ‘And do not either of you think to convince me to give up my talisman through this soppy charade.’

      Anigel ceased crying. She sat up, wiped her eyes with a napkin, and shrugged. ‘It was worth the try,’ she said sweetly.

      ‘By the Flower!’ the Archimage said, chagrined as much by the Queen’s artful deception as by Kadiya’s intransigence. ‘You two will drive me to distraction.’

      ‘No, dear Hara,’ said Anigel, now in deadly earnest. ‘We will rather do whatever must be done to help you conquer the Star Men and restore the balance of the world, no matter what the personal cost.’ She turned to her other sister with a steely glance. ‘Is it not so, Kadi?’

      ‘Oh … lothok dung!’ cried the Lady of the Eyes, flinging the drumstick down onto her plate. ‘I suppose I will have to give in. You shall have the Burning Eye, Hara. What matter if my pride is in rags and my confidence undermined?’

      ‘It is for the best,’ the Archimage said, with evident relief.

      ‘May I keep the talisman with me until we Three separate, at least?’ Kadiya asked.

      ‘Certainly. There can be no danger here within the Citadel. I know for a certainty that there are no viaducts here, through which Orogastus or his agents might enter and steal the Eye.’

      ‘Those triply bedamned magical bolt-holes!’ Kadiya exclaimed. ‘You had better explain to Ani about them so she is forewarned.’

      ‘Viaducts?’ the Queen frowned. ‘Do you mean such as carried Hara from the Land of Fire and Ice to the home of the Archimage Iriane, when the Blood Trillium estranged us Three?’

      ‘Yes,’ Haramis said. She pushed aside dishes and tableware, laid out a large clean napkin, and touched her talisman to it. There was a faint smell of scorched linen, and immediately the cloth became a wondrously detailed map of the world-continent. ‘The viaducts are not truly magic, even though they seem so to us who know little of the science behind their making. Behold the viaduct portals.’

      Anigel exclaimed in amazement, for the map became peppered with innumerable scarlet pinpoint dots. ‘So many!’

      ‘And now,’ said the Archimage, ‘since Orogastus stole a certain book belonging to Iriane that explained their operation, they are accessible to the sorcerer and his Star Guild.’

      Kadiya said, ‘The villains are capable of popping up out of any one of those points like ziklu from a warren, and they can also go to ground through them, escaping their pursuers. Hara is thus far unable to destroy the viaducts or close them with her magic.’

      ‘It seems that the Vanished Ones used these passageways for casual travel about their world,’ the White Lady explained. ‘To ordinary people, the viaduct openings are invisible and imperceptible. But if one knows more or less where the portal is, it is only necessary to utter the proper arcane command