servant in black and gold showed him into a glasshouse protruding from the side of the tower, where it could catch the sun. It sat high in the tower with a magnificent view out over the forest. The floor was translucent crystal and he could see the grounds a long way below. The view made him nervous. The heat in the place reminded him of the jungles he had just vacated. Belthania was garbed in thin flowing robes of greenish silk that clung to the curves of her body. She smiled grimly as he entered. She had a faintly drugged, somnolent air to her, as always.
‘Prince Teclis,’ she said. ‘It is good to see you again.’
She did not sound as if it was. The words were purely spoken from politeness.
He decided to match the tone. ‘The High Loremaster suggested I pay you a visit. He said you wanted to talk with me.’
‘Word has it you have recently returned from the jungles of Lustria, from the slann city of Zultec, and that you brought with you the sword of Aenarion.’
‘My brother has it. He goes to offer it to the service of the Everqueen.’
‘He may have need of it soon.’
‘Why do you say this?’
‘I have been studying the skies and performing other divinatory rites and the signs have not been good.’
‘How so?’ Teclis was curious. Divination was a famously imprecise school of magic. Its practitioners were regarded as little more than charlatans by serious scholars. Except Morathi. Her gifts had been proven again and again.
‘The winds of magic are becoming increasingly contaminated by the powers of Chaos. You can feel it if you try any of the greater spells.’
‘I have sensed something even when working minor spells of the Art.’
‘You are certainly more sensitive than most to such things.’
Teclis wondered if she was sneering at him, but he saw none of the usual signs of contempt. ‘Why am I here?’
‘You saw no signs of anything similar in Lustria?’
‘I noticed nothing of the sort.’
‘Good, then perhaps things have not progressed too far then.’
‘Too far for what?’
‘I believe we may be entering a new age of catastrophe, Prince Teclis. The polar warp gates have long been dormant but they have started to erupt once more. The signs are all there if you know how to look.’
Teclis nodded to encourage her to keep talking. ‘This is dire news if true.’
‘It is true enough, I fear. Ships sailing off the northern coasts of the Old World have reported great drifts of tribes down from the Northern Wastes. They were accompanied by daemons and all manner of monsters. Agents have reported rumours that the Hag Queen herself was sighted there mere months ago.
‘The Vortex has become progressively more unstable. The ghosts of Caledor and his companions have been sighted at many places close to the waystones. The land trembles. The mountains begin to burn.
‘The winds of darkness blow hard again. The Everqueen is dead. A new Everqueen is not yet steady on her throne. I do not think this is all simply coincidence.
‘The dreams of the Wise have been troubled. I wished to ask you if yours had been.’
So that was what this was about. Teclis mentioned his own vision in the forest en route to the tower. Belthania nodded as if she had expected to hear something like this. ‘Did you have any such dreams before that?’ she asked.
‘No. But I have been far from Ulthuan in recent months. Have you done anything about these signs? Surely the Phoenix King should be warned.’
‘We have sent messengers apprising him of this.’
‘What has Finubar done?’
‘Nothing as far as we can tell. But then what can he do until there is some definite threat?’
‘From what you are saying, one of those will not be long in coming.’
‘I would love to be proved wrong but I fear I will not be. I also feel that you have an important role to play in all of this.’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘It is a feeling I have. Things have been strange ever since the Keeper of Secrets returned.’
‘N’Kari?’
‘Yes. I fear he was a harbinger of a new age of terrors for the elves. He almost destroyed us once.’
‘He certainly almost destroyed me once,’ said Teclis, thinking back to the brief terrifying time over a century ago when he had faced the daemon.
‘And yet you are still here. Perhaps that is why I think you and your brother are important. How many elves have ever survived an encounter with one of the