The Spirit War(134)

The wind hesitated. “But,” it whispered. “My deal—”

“Nothing that wizard promises ever comes out as you would like,” Illir said. “I’m taking the message. Give it to me and you will have my high regard.”

“Yes, Lord Illir,” the wind whispered, trembling as it repeated the bright wizard’s words.

“Thank you,” Illir said, freeing the little wind with a toss of his gale. “You may go.”

“Yes, my lord,” the wind whispered, bowing. “Thank you, my lord.”

But Illir was already gone, flying across the sky with the impossible speed only the greatest winds could dream of. With a great sigh, the little wind sped away to brag to its brothers about how Illir himself had stopped just for it, the wizard’s deal already forgotten.





CHAPTER


19


After ten hours of sleep, a bath, and an enormous breakfast, Miranda was a new woman, and the first thing she’d done with her newfound energy was attack the restricted shelves of the Spirit Court archives. She’d spent all morning reading spectacular stories of Spiritualists doing the impossible—talking down erupting volcanoes, brokering peace between warring rivers, even ending a five-year drought by freeing a wind spirit whose capture by an Enslaver had so angered the wind courts that they’d held off the rain in retaliation. There was even a description of the meeting four hundred years ago between the first Rector of the Spirit Court and the Shaper Mountain that had led to the raising of the Spirit Court’s Tower in a single day. The actual deed the Tower was in thanks for had been carefully omitted, but Miranda’s frustration was soothed by the dozens of secrets that hadn’t been crossed out.

For someone who’d given her life to the Court, it was breathtaking reading. It was also infuriating. All of the restricted reports dealt in one way or another with a star. Of course, they were never called stars, but now that Miranda knew what she was looking for, it was easy enough to read through the sometimes excruciatingly vague language and find the truth. The Spirit Court had encountered stars numerous times over centuries of enforcing the good treatment of spirits, but every time the real nature of these greater than Great Spirits had been hushed up and locked away in the archives. It was enough to make Miranda grind her teeth to stubs.

“I don’t understand,” she said, yet again. “What’s the point of hiding this? If we were only taught about stars, told these stories… Look here, the great river Ell that runs through the southern kingdoms is a star. All that time we spent two years ago badgering the Felltris River to flood the fields and not the houses? Wasted. We could have solved the whole thing with one trip down to the southern delta to chat with the river all the others have to listen to.”

Gin flattened his ears against his head with a whine. “Can you please stop talking about stars? You’re going to get us all in trouble.”

“In trouble with whom?” Miranda said, slamming down the report and spinning around in her chair.

Gin looked away.

“You mean the Shep—”

“Stop,” Gin growled, lashing his tail. “Don’t say her name. It attracts her attention.”

“Fine with me,” Miranda said, crossing her arms. “There are several things I want to ask her.”

“Get in line,” Mellinor rumbled bitterly. “But if the Shepherdess could be appealed to, I wouldn’t have spent four centuries locked in a pillar of salt.”

“Mellinor,” Gin said in a warning tone.

“No,” Mellinor said. “I don’t care if it’s forbidden to speak of the Shepherdess’s business with humans. The Shaper Mountain already broke the edicts. Why should we bother keeping them?”

“The Shaper Mountain is one of the oldest spirits in the world,” Gin said. “He’s also the biggest. He can afford to take risks.”

“So can we,” Miranda said firmly. “Slorn said the Shaper Mountain showed us the truth for a reason.”

Gin snorted. “Yes, because the mountain knows you’re ignorant. The old rock pile wants you to take the fall for asking questions spirits shouldn’t ask.”

“What do you mean?”

The ghosthound sighed. “There are things that it’s better not to know, Miranda. And just because some great mountain and his pet bear man are fed up with the Shepherdess’s antics doesn’t mean you should go putting yourself in danger.”

“If the Shepherdess isn’t doing what she should, then I have to take action, danger or no,” Miranda snapped. “I’m sworn to protect the spirits.”