"I hated them, their eyes weren't natural," Pearlina snapped. "Zellar didn't like them either. He only took them two or three light-years distance. He said he couldn't stand taking them farther than that."
"How many snakes were there?"
"Only six that we sent out. The rest didn't have good speech, so we made them do other things. Clean up and such. Maybe fifteen or so when I left. Some of them died. The females all died."
Are you getting that? I sent to Lendill.
Got it, Lendill replied.
"What can you tell me about Zellar?" I asked.
"He did amazing things. The boss really liked him."
"What kind of amazing things?"
"He destroyed a starship once, when the boss asked him. Six light-years away and moving at light speed. That's amazing."
"That is amazing. Six light-years."
"Yeah. He's terrible in bed though." Lendill snickered at Pearlina's observation.
We didn't get much more from Pearlina. I didn't tell her, but the Council was scheduled to question her a final time the following morning. After that, they'd perform the execution. I was already asking Cheedas to prepare Pearlina's final meal for dinner as soon as we got above ground.
* * *
"This is getting us nowhere." Norian was so frustrated I thought he'd have a stroke. His hair was wild after he'd raked it with his hands too many times to count. We'd gone over the worlds that had the fruit, vegetables and other things Pearlina mentioned. As Lendill said, there were seventeen of those. Then we overlaid a map of all the locations where Norian had found the reptanoids boarding ships to travel. We didn't have a good handle on comings and goings, so all of those were included. It didn't help.
"Well, she did say that Zellar had a range of six light-years at least, if he hit a ship. Now, what if he hit that ship we were on that circulated Tykl?" I suggested. "Let me see if Erland can come." I sent out mindspeech. Erland was there in a blink, looking just as fresh and handsome as ever.
"Pearlina said that Zellar once hit a starship from six light-years away," I said. "Is that normal for a warlock?"
Erland stared at me. "It's not normal for any warlock. A few might do it. Not Zellar."
"But Pearlina said he did. Said he hit a moving starship from six light-years away," I insisted. "She believed it was the truth—I would have known if she were attempting a lie."
"Zellar doesn't have that kind of natural talent," Erland said.
"Even so, we have the ship that was hit while orbiting Tykl," I pointed out. "Let's pull up Tykl on a map and then draw a six light-year radius around that and see if it intersects with anything else we've gotten."
Lendill, deciding to humor me, pulled up the star map of Tykl on Norian's huge vidscreen. Then he asked the computer to make the radius drawing around it, highlighting any of the worlds we'd entered so far. There weren't any.
"Crap," I muttered. "And there isn't anything strange going on with any of the planets inside that radius?" Lendill went to take a closer look.
"Just that abnormality on Mazareal—those climate fluctuations I told you about, Norian." Lendill looked at us for a moment before wiping out the map.
"Wait. Did you say climate fluctuations?" Erland was frightened, and I'd never heard his voice sound that way. He was always smooth and confident. Not this time.
"They wanted us to check on it, but I told them to get with the Science and Technology Department," Lendill said. "We don't have time to research why their weather is hotter than it should be, or why the plants and trees are dying."
"Holy f**k," Erland borrowed one of my favorite phrases and dropped like a rock into my desk chair.
* * *
Wylend was in my office fretting, Norian was on the communicator with Ildevar Wyyld, Lendill was on the communicator with the RAA—Regular Alliance Army, and also speaking with the Governor of Mazareal. Things didn't look so good. If Erland and Wylend were correct, then Zellar had turned to the blackest of wizardry to do what he'd done for Black Mist—he'd tapped into the energy at the core of the planet and drained it to enhance his power.
According to Erland and Wylend, once the process started, the remaining energy would drain away from the planet at an accelerated rate with nothing to stop it. Mazareal was gasping its last. That's why Black Mist had gone looking at Darthin—Zellar was about to run out of his power source. Wylend seemed to think that Mazareal might have ten years left—if that much. Then everything would die. Unless the population could find another home, the swift death of Trell would look like a kindness by comparison. Zellar's draining of Mazareal's core also told me how Black Mist had blocked me from finding them when I Looked—so much power in a warlock's hands had accomplished that feat for them.
"But where could they be on Mazareal? Pearlina said a gray stone building, with a basement or dungeon, obviously—we've got vampires plus Solar Red, missing children, a sandwich cart outside, reptanoids and it was hot eleven moon turns ago." I wanted to rake my hands through my hair, but it would look so much worse than Norian's if I did that.
"We're looking, deah-mul," Norian muttered as he and Lendill went through city after city on Mazareal, trying to match everything up. "Why don't you go the kitchen and find something to drink? You look worn out."
"Fine." I walked out of Norian's office, heading for the kitchen. It was late—Norian had sent for sandwiches ages ago and we'd eaten those as we researched locations and argued. I was thirsty, that much was certainly true. I was digging around in the cold keeper and pulling out a bottle of fruit juice when he walked in.
He looked as if I could reach out and touch him, though I knew I couldn't. He smiled at me; something that I hadn't seen very often from him over the years. It twisted my heart.
"Lissa, they sent me back for only a little while," he said.
"I know." I looked up at Rolfe's square jaw and larger than life features.
"I didn't want you to suffer. Didn't think that you would, actually," he said.
"Honey, I love you. How could it be otherwise?"
"I didn't expect Giff to do what she did."
"I know that too."
"They tell me that Giff, well, it wasn't supposed to turn out like that, so they'll keep her for a while." Rolfe shrugged his wide shoulders. "And it won't be the same, ever again."
"Does that upset you?" I looked up at him.