Back, but not to Square One

Later that day, Elder Sylvain Goldenrod opened a door, and held out a bag. The woman who answered the door smiled and took a silver guilder out, while the Elder picked up a little wax candle out of a tray by the door. He asked her where Elder Redocil was. She answered that he in the grove out back, playing a game similar to hide-and-seek, that involved stalking a few of the youngsters who had not had their wings grow in yet.

Elder Goldenrod left to go out to the back. He saw Redocil pointing to a fork in the trunk of an aspen, and said, "Val, you are too easy for me to find. Use the leaves or underbrush to help hide you." Redocil noticed Elder Goldenrod looking at him. He walked up and said, "You are not here to help me flush out the youngsters, are you?"

"No. I have some things to tell you. I would like to do this while we are alone."

"Fine. But what is so hot that it has to be kept secret?" replied Redocil, talking in his natural sing-song. "Let us talk while we look for the last child."

"George is further up the aspen, about halfway up. See him?"

"I do now. The same tree as Val, but harder to find." Then he raised his voice, but did not yell. "George, you can come down too. That was a good job, but Elder Goldenrod's sharp eyes picked you out."

Val climbed down from the tree, but George said, "Catch?" Redocil said, "Climb down to the fork, and I will think about it." Once George reached the fork, he asked "Catch?" again, and Redocil replied, "Go ahead." The child jumped out, and Redocil caught the young Glider, and set him down. The two children scampered off into the house.

Goldenrod replied, quietly, "Robin and I are going to Celestial Mountain a week earlier than I had planned."

"Why are you going so fast?"

"I would like to talk to a couple of the burgesses."

"Are you changing your mind about not wanting to stand for burgess?"

"Not really. Although if people think that, I do not mind. They will be gossiping anyway, so that is as good a thing to gossip about as any. I am really going because I have some news."

Redocil perked up. "Yes. I have not heard anything especially noteworthy."

"That is because you are the first to hear it."

"Including your own family?"

"Yes."

"Well, go on."

"Minestus is dead."

"How do you know?"

"I saw the one who slayed him wearing boots made of his skin."

"Oh, no. Qan of Westmark?"

"No. One of ours. Checkers."

"Impossible! The poor girl died years ago."

"I saw her just a few hours ago. I am sure that this was not a dream or vision or a delusion. It was her. She is older, and has a little wear and a lot of experience, but it was her all the same. She told me the story. She used the same spear she went out with."

"Where is she?"

"Still in the Eveninglands, in a human monarchy south of the dragon's lair called Aqualaria. She is learning some of the ways of the so-called mages of the old days, as well as their language - which are tied together, as some have guessed."

"Did you tell her that she must not do that?"

"No. She is being very cautious. She was trying to get home, using one of the stories in an uncensored Old Dolomite siriki. She got me instead. She is healthy, and the leading families of Aqualaria treat her well, but she is homesick. She did most of the talking."

"I do not understand why that makes a difference. If she is doing magic, she could become dangerous."

"Minestus is dead, and while I am glad to see him go, things have now changed. If we just stick to the ban, that may not be a good thing for us. We are now in more danger than ever from our newly active enemies on the east, and it may be good to have one of us at least studying the old power, with proper humility and restraint. So I do not forbid her to study the siriki."

"You did not tell her the details about the circumstances leading to her expulsion?"

"No. She did what the League asked her to do, and why bring up the petty details as to why she was sent out in the first place? Besides, you and I were the two votes against."

"To this day I do not understand why the burgess for Lightning Pass insisted that we not give her the extra year. The rite of the dragon hunt was intended only in cases for gross defects of character, or irremedial weakness."

"I have my suspicions as to why. I think that someone may have felt that she would be a difficult Glider to manage one day. She was a threat to someone. I would like to find out if that someone was Minestus himself."

"Impossible! Are you suggesting that Minestus had corrupted the Burgesses?"

"Just between you and me and the fence post, yes. Corruption or blackmail. I have thought so since that decision was made, but have kept my silence. If my suspicions are true, then Minestus received poetic justice. That is why I am going to Celestial Mountain. And I don't want the gossip mill to start churning with the story that Minestus is dead, which would eventually get out to the human buroughs. Even if I am wrong, it would be bad for the humans to believe it. With Minestus gone, the valleys between the Burcastrians and us are open. We have to be smart and careful - and above all, do not let the humans know that he is gone until we have some plans to protect ourselves that do not rely on the humans fearing Minestus."

Astra had asked to be awakened. It was two in the morning. She would go with the guard to the barn. She saw that the treasure was still there. Checkers lay asleep on the straw of the barn. Leo was tired from the long day but in a mood to talk.

Leo recounted the story of Checkers' effort to describe Iron Mountain, and the thrilling story of the East Wind, which he already knew approximately from translating it earlier. He then described the appearance of a Glider noble - for even in a republic there are souls who are the natural nobility - in that very barn. He had disappeared just a few minutes before, but not before Checkers had told her story.

Astra shrugged her shoulders. "It is sad that this did not work."

Leo said, "Maybe. But I do not think that she was down in the few minutes after the other Glider disappeared. She seemed to be more - I don't know. Deep in thought, I guess."

The commander of the guards said, "We will stand here, and take the treasure back for safekeeping tomorrow morning, if you wish."

Astra replied, "Let her sleep."

1. The weather became warmer, and the first signs of summer appeared as the wedding day came.
2. The last of the translation was finished, and the Queen's copy of the tome was bound. At that very moment, the original tome disappeared!
3. The last of the translation was finished, and the Queen's copy of the tome was bound. At that moment, Checkers, Fred, Astra, and the original tome disappeared!
4. Before the wedding day, an unsettling event happened. A wizard, up to now unknown, demanded that a bride be given to him from the royal house. He promised that if his demand was not met, the marriage of Fred and Astra would never take place.

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