Fire Angels

Chapter 14 Part 5 The regalia is returned

The White Tower was abuzz with excitement by the time we had returned but it was not because of our meeting with the Wanderers.

The guards at the gate told us that a great host of Wanderers all armed for war were drawn up under the city walls. They had simply appeared as if out of thin air. There were almost 5000 of them.

"I did no think so many Wanderers still existed," cried Lady Julia. "Come with me you two. The Duke will be wanting advice."

I was swept into the council chamber like a little boat in Julia's wake, just in time to hear Lord Quercy cry, "I cannot. Most Southerners will refuse to fight them. Your Grace."

"Can you not command your own army?" shouted the Duke.

"Your Grace, the Klementari are at the gates." said Lady Julia.

"You do not need to tell me that," thundered the Duke. "I do not have the mages to fight five thousand and these Morians of yours tell me nothing useful."

He nodded at the Duke of Tanza.

"Very well. Use Gallians if you must. Just get those mages to the walls."

"Your Grace," protested Lord Quercy. "This is not an appropriate..."

"Your Grace, the Klementari, the Wanderers as you once knew them, met me while I was out riding today and hailed me as future Queen of Moria. I do not think we need to be afraid of them. The Klementari are traditional allies of my house. I think they come as friends."

"Do not show them an unfriendly face, Your Grace," said Lord Sercel. "These people were always bad enemies in the past."

"Past! The Klementari are a myth. What is wrong with you, Morians? Must your love of legend always blind you to the facts? An army of 5000 appears out of thin air and you expect me to do nothing."

"It will be pointless." said Lady Julia.

But she was interrupted by Lord Uttrello who came nervously into the room.

"Your Grace, the leaders of the Klementari request an audience with you."

"Yes well, see they are kept outside the city till I've got things organized."

"Your Grace," stammered Lord Uttrello. "They are already in the anteroom."

To do Duke Leon credit he did not show fear, though he had sworn comprehensively when the meaning of Lord Uttrello words had dawned on him.

Around me the Gallians were full of muttered questions. How could this be? How could the Klementari just walk into one of the best magically and physically guarded fortresses in the country and penetrate as far as the anteroom of the audience chamber without being seen or stopped by anyone.

Then, as he and Lady Julia mounted the dais to receive the visitors, he called me over and said "Madame Dion, I ask that you stand on the dais with us. I rely entirely upon your loyalty."

There was a time when I would have melted for the smile in his cold eyes, but he was mistaken if he relied on my loyalty now. I did not think the Klementari were here to fight which meant that any fighting would be his fault. In such a case I did not think I would want to take his part. There seemed no point in saying so at this time however.

I could not help wondering if the Klementari were wise to show their power so soon to man like the Duke of Gallia. On the other hand perhaps it is better to command the respect of autocrats rather than to placate them.

Symon, Causa and Beg swept in through the door and down the length of the audience room. They seemed to glow with might and power. An almost palpable sense of otherness surrounded them as if they were beings from the stars. They must have been casting a glamour over themselves for I could feel a slight whisper of magic like the faint scent of perfume in an empty room.

I remembered Causa as seeming so comfortable. The glamour made her blindness and Beg's age part of a frightening whole. The two of them strode along with a strength and certainty that I had never seen them use before. I caught myself wondering if that previous hominess might have been the glamour and this might the reality. I would never have even thought to look at it before.

Symon lead the way. He still wore black, but now it was of some rich cloth. A great black cloak swirled around him as he came and he carried a long staff in his hand as if it were a banner. Atop the staff was a raven cast in gold spreading its wings. Causa and Beg wore mages robes, but they were dark green, a color never used by ordinary mages, and were embroidered in gold with runes and the holy symbols of the Klementari. Behind them came two warriors dressed in brown garb, which also was embroidered with symbols. One of them carried a small golden chest.

Symon bowed, politely but not low.

"I am Symon, Raven of the Klementari, the people you knew before as the Wanderers. These ladies are Causa the High Dreamer and Beg the High Mage of our people. Greetings and good wishes to you, Duke of Gallia. And to you, Lady Julia Madraga. And greetings and praises to you, Enna Dion. We have heard of your greatness. The Klementari give special honor to all Mages."

The Duke returned the greetings graciously and asked what it was that bought the Klementari to Lammerquais.

"A terrible necromancer, a murderer and a Demonmaster, has taken possession of the place that you call the Great waste and he threatens Ernundra, once the beloved land of our people, before it was laid waste by Smazor. This blasphemy cannot be allowed to continue. The Klementari go to the Great Waste to destroy the necromancer and all his works and to free Ernundra the Holy Land and take her again to our hearts. It is time the Klementari ceased to wander."

There was a sensation in the room at this announcement. From where I stood beside him, I heard the Duke's quick intake of breath and saw annoyance flickering across his face. Without doubt he was enraged that open news of the necromancer which he had tried so hard to keep to himself was well and truly in the open now. Still I was completely astonished by his next words.

"You have proof of necromancy in the Great Waste?" he said.

"Yes" said Symon.

"I am shocked," said the Duke, looking quite believably shocked. He leapt up and began to pace up and down along the dais in an agitated manner. "I had heard of necromantic dabblings, but demonmastery, an actual necromancer? The thought of it chills me to my soul."

I was shocked too. I though the Duke knew about this. I thought it was he who had wanted me to keep quiet about it. I shot a look at Lord Sercel who had his eyes lowered to the floor. He looked pretty shocked too. Was it at the news or the fact that the news had finally come out despite all his efforts. For a horrible moment I had wondered if he had not told the Duke. But it was too ludicrous to think that the Duke did not know what the whole Southern army suspected.

"I commend you on your mission," he said now. "It is a fine and Holy one."

"Indeed it is," said Lady Julia suddenly. "Southern Moria must be liberated as soon as possible. People must not be exposed to such danger." She too looked shocked. Was hers false or real? I remembered guiltily that I had not told her of Sanctuary and I knew that the Duke told her nothing.

Symon nodded his head respectfully towards her. "It is a task we are committed to with our whole beings. But before us is Southern Moria defended by a desperate Church which has no love for us. We seek an alliance, a pact of mutual aid with the one who will go south first."

"With the one who will go south first," echoed the Duke, in an arrested voice. I began to wonder if the Duke had missed his calling. Perhaps he should have been an actor. "Does this mean that you will also seek an alliance with our brother the Patriarch?"

"The Patriarch is no friend of the Klementari," said Symon. "And Gerard Hawksmoor will never wear the Iron Crown of Moria. The Dreamers have said so and it will be so." He lifted up his hand and the Warrior with the golden chest came forward. "Witness now, the truth of Klementari foretelling. 100 years ago our ancestress, a woman called Nesta, said that Moria would be a kingdom again when the iron regalia were found."

The warrior placed the chest on the steps of the dais and opened it.

"Behold how foretelling has become truth! Behold the Holy Iron Regalia of Moria!"