“Next time, when someone tells you what your limitations are, give careful consideration to whether or not there are actual limits to what you can do, Shanno,” Saleria told him. “Because every single mortal in the whole of this world has areas where we are weak. I myself am incredibly ignorant of foreign lands and foreign ways, but I am not ashamed to admit it. And I will never cook as well as my housekeeper, Nannan. But it does not pain me to admit that, either.
“My strength as the Keeper of the Grove may seem enviable, and something worth grasping . . . but you have not seen the thorns lurking on the branches you would grab. Well, now you have,” she allowed, then firmed her tone. “And now you will get up and shield all these people, Deacon, with what magic you do have. Go inside, stay inside,” she ordered, “and wait for Aradin, Teral, and me to corral and contain all the creatures your weaknesses have let loose.”
Nodding, he pushed wearily to his feet, staggered a little on some of the crumbled bits of wall, then limped toward the guard hall.
Saleria watched him go, then moved closer to the very welcome face of her assistant and lover. Under her breath, she asked, “You know more about what’s been going on than I, so . . . how are we going to do this?”
“I know only parts of it,” he returned in a murmur of his own. Gesturing along the path the treeman had taken, he started walking with her toward the Grove and her home. “Teral has an idea, now that he’s seen all three of us controlling that thing with our attunement.”
“I’d like to hear it, Teral,” Saleria stated, looking straight at Aradin. It was a subtle courtesy she had seen some of the others at the Convocation giving to Orana Niel.
Aradin almost handed his body over to his Guide, but checked himself. Now was not the time to be swapping consciousnesses, not when Teral had far more experience at watching for danger out of the corners of his Host’s eyes than he himself did. “Teral says most Guardians work in conjunction with their Fountain, at their Fountain, to cover the area affected by its magics. That it’s easier to start from that strongest position. And that . . . ah . . . yes, and that it’s possible to set up scrying spells to track down anything carrying the taste of the Grove’s locus-rifts.”
Saleria nodded, reasoning it through. “Yes, that makes sense. Since most of the magic has been confined within its walls all this time, the stuff that reeks of the Grove outside those walls should be easy to find.”
“It may take time, but if we sweep around the Grove and the outlying land in the same direction the aether circles, we should be able to use the crest of the wave to augment our own efforts—that’s my own suggestion,” he added.
She smiled slightly, skirting another patch of rubble. “Considering you didn’t preface it with ‘Teral says,’ I figured as much.”
He smiled back, and caught her hand. “I’ve missed you. How much longer will the Convocation take?”
“Another week or so—is that an azalea bush? With little snake heads for flowers?” Saleria asked, taken aback at the raggedly spherical bush-thing slowly moving up the street. It did so by shifting its serpent-heads to make itself sort of tumble and roll this way and that.
“I . . . really can’t say,” Aradin replied cautiously, unsure he wanted to get close enough to tell. “The real question is, with, what, forty heads? With forty heads . . . what does it eat, and with what part does it excrete?”
Caught off guard by the oddball question, she chuckled and leaned into him, letting their shoulders bump as they walked. “I’ve missed you terribly, too, Aradin. Both of you, Teral. I can only stay a day or so; the Nightfallers want me to be on hand to represent Katan when the, ah, priest of the Independence of Mandare—some rude, woman-hating kingdom somewhere to the east—has his chance to speak with his God.”
“Oh?” Aradin asked. “I’ve heard of the Mandarites, and they’re just southeast of Darkhana by a few weeks of sailing. But Katan is its own continent, with no other neighbors other than Nightfall. What have they to do with you?”
“It seems they’ve tried to invade and claim Katani and Nightfaller territories for their own without either of our nations’ permission, and Queen Kelly wants me to help lay out some strict ground rules for their future behavior. Particularly if they ever want to get near the Convocation again.” She shrugged, then stopped, watching the snake-bush thing warily. “I think it’s spotted us. Let’s tell it to head back, and anything else in our path, shall we?”