knew. If things went terribly wrong, I’d only be able to watch and do nothing. Still, I’d rather know than be ignorant.
Holding on to Vesno’s mind, I tried lifting my mind’s eye away from his. I wanted to be able to see and hear at will—not just where the dog ended up going. Despite my assurances to Con, I wasn’t at all sure that Ambrose would allow the wolfhound into his throne room.
As soon as I moved beyond Vesno’s perception, however, I lost the connection. So much for that idea. I’d rather suspected it wouldn’t work, but it had been the easiest path and worth attempting first. I’d always been able to connect to the denizens of Calanthe, to feel through their lives, large and small—but I’d also always skipped from one to the next. Fish to bird to mouse to flower to bee to tree to sea to soil. For this, I wanted a higher perspective, a disembodied one. If I could do that.
I hadn’t told Con of my plan to try to watch over them from afar—besides via Vesno—for this very reason: in case I failed. If only I’d spent some time actually practicing magic over the long years of doing nothing useful while pretending to be Anure’s fiancée. Though I supposed I’d never really understood before recently that I could actively wield magic, instead of just being created by it.
All right, next I’d try connecting via Ibolya. As with Vesno, I could touch her mind through Calanthe’s connection to Her children. Ibolya had been born on Calanthe, and so she was Mine on that level beyond thought or physical limitations. Though she’d granted my request that I look through her eyes on the mission—something I’d asked her to keep secret—I also treated that permission with great care. Ibolya would hardly refuse her queen, even if she’d prefer to.
I slipped into her mind quietly, like the scent of a night-blooming flower, not enough to alert her to my presence, just enough to anchor myself to the place she occupied. Not wanting to startle her with any sort of greeting—especially as that might give her away—I found that she was sleeping anyway. I sensed the rocking of the boat and the smell of fish that had permeated it. They’d thought they might have the best chances of sneaking into the citadel undetected late at night, so that aspect of the mission clearly had not yet commenced.
I tried lifting myself from her mind, but met with the same obstacle. I could leap from her to Vesno—who greeted me again with the same enthusiastic joy—and back again to Ibolya’s sleeping mind, but I couldn’t go anywhere else.
Hmm. I withdrew my mind’s eye back to the quiet tower, the smooth sand gleaming before me. If nothing else, I could follow through those two. But I wanted more.
Time for my last gambit, which felt risky on a number of levels.
Show Me Ambrose, I murmured mentally, waving my hand over the sand to help the vision along. I’d decided to try for the wizard if nothing else worked, as his magical profile should make him stand out in the planes between realms like an iceberg floating in the sea—visible no matter from which angle I came upon him. I flung my intention outward, feeling as if I’d tossed a garland of flowers onto the waves in hope of catching a fish. And very much like that, I came up with nothing.
Ejarat take it. Maybe this wouldn’t work after all.
In that case, I’d have to reconcile myself to observing through Vesno’s eyes—or Ibolya’s, in a pinch—but I couldn’t shake the foreboding that I needed to be able to do more. Just in case. Con would likely say that was me trying to control everything, and he wouldn’t be wrong. Still, Ambrose’s last words to me kept circling my mind. I trust that You will follow your heart. My heart urged me to find a way to see, perhaps affect events.
The stakes were high, so I wouldn’t give up easily.
I tried going back through Ibolya, as Ambrose should be on the same boat with her. But short of waking her and making her go look, I couldn’t find the wizard that way. Besides, I didn’t sense him anywhere near her, which seemed odd. Ambrose’s magic shone brightly, and it seemed I should be able to detect him. Withdrawing to the tower and the immaculate surface of the sand, I mulled the problem.
Probably I was hitting a