Phoenix Ascendant - eARC by Ryk E Spoor

done, he went up to his small room, set as many wards as he reasonably could manage, and only then sat at the tiny wooden table and placed his hands on the seal. “Aran Condor,” he said, and bent the seal; it popped with a flash of green and eerie yellow.
    Undoubtedly our Patron , he thought grimly, as the contents slid into view: a polished mirror-scroll, silver trimmed with gold. He remembered with a chill his last viewing of such a scroll—the mirror-finish replaced with the pure-black face and dead-blue eyes of Kerlamion himself.
    With a sigh, Condor picked it up and held it before him. “I am here.”
    There was no immediate response, and Condor had a sudden hope that there would be no response. Maybe something had happened in the intervening time. If his Patron was no more…
    But if that were the case, he would have known; the powers it gave them would have faded away.
    On his third attempt, the silver faded suddenly, replaced with the cheerful smiling face of their Patron. “Ah, Condor! How wonderful! You’ve made it all the way to Valatar.”
    “Not without incident. I still haven’t caught up with Phoenix, always just a few weeks behind them, and in the meantime this…place almost got destroyed—by a Great Elderwyrm, no less!”
    “Yes, indeed, Sanamaveridion himself. But about Phoenix—I’m afraid we were both a bit misled.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean that you would be very ill-advised to go talk to the lovely rulers of Kaizatenzei and bring up the subject; you see, while I had thought they were—in a general sense, mind you—on my side, both Lady Shae and Light Miri betrayed my cause, and that of the King of All Hells.” He looked sincerely apologetic. “I am afraid that while you thought you were following the Phoenix, they were just laying a false trail. The Phoenix was going the other way around the lake.”
    For a moment Aran sat still, dumbfounded. Tricked? Following a false trail all that way? Hundreds of miles following NOTHING ?
    Then he cursed and turned away. “Myrionar’s Balance , how stupid could I be. Of course, that makes sense of everything .”
    “Really? What does it make sense of?”
    He gestured vaguely. “I kept running into problems—real people problems, monsters, kidnappings, all that kind of thing—that it seemed obvious to me were the kinds of things a real Justiciar would have to deal with. It passed belief that the Phoenix would just pass them by unless there was something just incredibly immediately important driving them on, but I never got a hint of what important thing that could be.
    “But now I know I was just getting whatever false hints they wanted to keep me going in the direction I was already headed. Thunder and Fire! ” He kicked the wall so hard it left a hole, and winced. Great, I’ll have to pay for that.
    “Yes, I see. Quite correct, of course. From what little I got from Miri when she severed our relationship, Phoenix did indeed get involved in such things along the route the party actually took.”
    “Do you at least know if Phoenix is still here in Valatar?”
    It smiled apologetically. “I am afraid not. You are now, in actuality, in the position you thought you were in earlier—a few weeks behind the Phoenix. The last symbol of Myrionar is now on its way home—to Evanwyl.”
    Aran closed his eyes and counted from fifty backwards to zero. This kept him from cursing again, at least, and saved the walls and furniture from more abuse. “At least I know where Phoenix is headed. I should be able to make up distance, unless they’re pushing forward on a hard march.”
    “They shouldn’t be; they have no reason to think it is necessary, and why would there be? Everything’s fine at home.” The smile was suddenly just a hair too sharp and shiny, and Aran shivered. “Get your rest tonight, Aran. You will catch them this time. I guarantee it.”
    “And if I don’t? If they reach Evanwyl? I—”
    “Aran, Aran, I understand