The Chaoswar Saga: A Kingdom Besieged, A Crown Imperilled, Magician’s End. Raymond E. Feist
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creating portals, or rifts as humans called them.
The Lord Regent stopped a few feet away, his face an unreadable mask. ‘Yes?’ he said in a tone that made it clear he was not pleased to have been summoned. Standing to his right and slightly behind him stood Kumal, Warleader of the Clans of the Seven Stars, and his expression mirrored his master’s displeasure. Both were dressed in robes of state, deep purple with sleeves trimmed in yellow-orange, every seam finished with silver thread. Gold frogs and loops gathered the robes in front. The Warleader’s robe was sleeveless and open at the front, revealing his silver breastplate. He bore gold pauldrons on his shoulders with matching gold bracers on his wrists.
‘Why was I summoned?’ demanded the Lord Regent.
Tanderae said, ‘Sire, we have been sending scrying probes through the gates to our old homes, to see if the demons still hunt us. We began to experience difficulties doing so on the world Baladan. Something prevented us from keeping a clear portal long enough to send our scrying probe through, and we have just located the source of that disruption to our explorations.’
‘For this you practically command me to leave the Regent’s Meet and rush here?’ Looking pointedly at the Loremaster, he said, ‘A meeting from which you were not excused, Tanderae.’ His glance took note of the Loremaster’s less formal attire, a simple dark blue robe and woven sandals. The only mark of his office was a silver brooch over his heart.
Tanderae bowed slightly. ‘This is why I was not at the Meet, Lord Regent, and why I sent for you despite knowing you were occupied with other vital matters. This really cannot wait.’
The senior galasmancers looked caught between regret at the summons and excitement over their find. Both knew the Lord Regent was quick to anger and slow to forgive, and it was often a task to know which mood would be upon him when bringing him news he did not wish to hear.
Tanderae ignored his lord’s building displeasure and pointed to the frame that would generate a portal. Glancing to the elf next to him, he nodded.
Nicosia, the Chief Galasmancer said, ‘My lord, our problems were not due to any failing on our part. Rather, the difficulties are because someone or something is trying to follow our last flight from Andcardia to … here.’
Suddenly the Lord Regent’s anger vanished and he became attentive, all hint of impatience gone. ‘You did well to summon me.’
He glanced at the portal and saw four Sentinels in full battle array. Despite their ceremonial appearance – spotless purple-trimmed yellow tunics and clean white-lacquered steel breastplates and helmets – these were battle-hardened warriors, and the armour had endured its share of dents, scrapes and bloodstains before being repaired and donned again. The Lord Regent nodded his respects, knowing that their presence indicated that the galasmancers had never lost sight of the dangers of opening portals to unknown worlds. One never knew what might come through if the portal was not fashioned properly. In theory, they were one-way devices, but brutal experience had taught them that wasn’t always the case. The Lord Regent vaguely recalled one report claiming that the human magician
Pug knew more about these things, a fact he found difficult to accept.
‘Now,’ said the Lord Regent. ‘Explain.’
Nicosia bowed. ‘My lord, the demons were able to follow us from the Hub World to Andcardia because we lingered too long in destroying all links between those worlds. It was a flaw in our design that what the humans call our “rifts” were allowed to be traced from the Hub, allowing the demons to fashion their own portals as we were destroying ours. We are certain we destroyed all links between here and Andcardia in a timely fashion. We have had no hint of demon pursuit since we arrived here.’
The Lord Regent was always pleased to hear that. They had returned to Home more than ten years ago and still he worried about the Demon Legion.
‘But that doesn’t mean they’re not out looking for us,’ said the Warleader, his face set in an expression that could only be called contained rage. He had been first in the battle and had borne the responsibility for the loss of countless warriors of the Clans of the Seven Stars and it weighed heavily on him, even years after the conflict.
‘Exactly,’ said Nicosia. He looked at Gulamendis and said, ‘Your demon-summoner can probably better serve you as to describing their abilities, but we are not aware of any demon possessing sufficient magical abilities to construct a portal, or even exploit an existing one unless it is left open for use.’
All eyes turned to Gulamendis who glanced at Amirantha. Seeing no help coming from the mute human, the elf said, ‘My lord, there is far more we don’t know about demons than we do.’ He found himself bordering on falling into one of his favourite rants as to why that was: because those endeavouring to learn about demons were hunted down and persecuted under this Lord Regent’s command, and the Circle of Light, the only body in taredhel society dedicated to knowledge for the sake of knowledge, had been obliterated. ‘We know some are magic-users, mostly battle-magic.’
He glanced at Amirantha again, and this time the warlock gave him a slight nod of agreement.
Gulamendis continued, ‘Since meeting Amirantha we’ve come to understand that the demon realm is a great deal more complex than we presumed.’
The Lord Regent looked at the human warlock and it was clear he expected a comment from him.
‘My lord,’ said Amirantha, bowing his head slightly. It wasn’t just that they were all taller by at least a head than he was, it was also that they were such cold, arrogant bastards: even the brothers, Gulamendis and Laromendis, were only less arrogant and more friendly in comparison to the rest. ‘Since first you arrived—’
‘Returned,’ interrupted the Lord Regent.
‘… returned,’ Amirantha amended, ‘Gulamendis and I have had the opportunity to compare our studies and discover more about the demons than either of us knew before. We believe we have only rudimentary knowledge of the demon realm. As Gulamendis says, it appears it is a far more complex and varied realm than we realized. We think now there may be different societies, some far more like those in our realm than we suspected. So, in short, there may be creatures we call “demons” who may be intelligent enough and have the magic skills to open rift gates or even create new ones.’
The Lord Regent looked as if something inside him had died. For all his faults, he passionately cared for his people. The idea of finally finding their ancestral home world, only to have to contend with the fear that once again the Clans of the Seven Stars might have to flee the Demon Legion, was devastating.
Sensing an opportunity, Amirantha continued, ‘My Lord, it would be of immense benefit to all if we could uncover more about this terrible threat. Knowledge is the key.’
The Lord Regent’s eyes narrowed. ‘What do you propose, human?’
‘Only that you allow Gulamendis to return with me for a time to my home island. There are other magicians, with different skills, who might be able to aid us in gaining more information on these demons.’ Seeing the Lord Regent begin to frown, he added quickly, ‘More useful information, I should have said.’
The Lord Regent glanced at the Warleader who barely moved, but Amirantha was beginning to learn to read the subtle expressions of the elves and suspected that the old warrior had just given his leader a shrug of uncertainty. Then the Lord Regent looked at his Loremaster.
Tanderae said, ‘It cannot do any harm, my lord. While none live who are more gifted in constructing portals,’ (which was probably not true, Amirantha thought, but now was not the time to digress on the topic of Pug’s knowledge of rifts compared to the Star Elves’) ‘the human magic-users are familiar with a great body of magical knowledge that has been for a time outside our areas of interest.’
Both Gulamendis and Amirantha knew that for an elf, that was a dangerous statement, for implicit in it was that the reason the areas of magic study among the Taredhel were narrow was the Regent’s Meet’s obliteration of the Circle of Light. Magicians who were not in direct