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Warn me if you see him turning toward us and I do not, Erejzan."
The acrobat nodded, leaning forward, fascinated by the moving picture in the
black glass. "He is doing something, Tyrus. Holding something." In the
background of that image they saw imps and devils scampering about and a few
hideous forms that might have been spellbound men and women Vraduir's slaves,
shuffling to and fro and doing the evil wizard's bidding. Erejzan strained to
make out what Vraduir was holding, then grunted as if he had been struck a
fair blow in the belly. "Tyrus, it is& it is
his own vision-glass!"
"Then we will see what he sees," Tyrus said with a cold confidence he did not
actually feel. He spoke a charm to make it so. "These glasses are twins,
Rasven, twins of the same fiery rock. Let this twin see what the other does."
The black surface shimmered again, the layers separating. One
remained Vraduir's moving image. But Vraduir's face dimmed and the shapes in
his own vision-glass were those in the upper layer seen from
Tyrus' point of view. For a heartbeat, the conflict between the two images was
very confusing. Tyrus worked to separate them and finally the uppermost
one the thing Vraduir himself was studying was sharp and clearly visible.
"A room!" Erejzan said excitedly, even as that thought came to Tyrus past his
network of magic making. "A fine room, with carpets and tapestries& a palace
chamber!" In his agitation, Erejzan started to clutch at Tyrus' arm. Then he
remembered how dangerous this endeavor was and hastily drew back. "Tyrus, you
were right to worry about LaRenya and the
La-Sirin Ilissa. Vraduir is looking into the very palace of Couredh. See the
markings on that chair? It is the royal symbol. We saw it over the gates and
in the dining hall."
"Ai!" Tyrus divided his mind, using a small portion to express himself to the
shape-changer. "His vision-glass is hampered by distance, just as mine is. He
could hardly see so clearly as this unless he was near to
Couredh which means he is quite close to us, Erejzan. If he were in Irico or
Sersa-Ornail or an outer island, the image would be so blurred he could not be
sure, nor could we, that it was a room!"
"Rooms," Erejzan corrected him, pointing without touching the surface of the
vision-glass. "Adjoining chambers, with a portal between them."
"Your eyes have always been quicker than mine. Now, we must see what he is
doing, looking into these chambers." Tyrus gripped the obsidian gently,
examining the scene in the rooms and Vraduir's leering face beneath that
picture. He dared to reach through the layers, masking himself in his most
potent protection, skimming the surface of Vraduir's thoughts, gathering words
and emotions while he and Erejzan looked into the black layers.
Vraduir's vision-glass was a weapon, roving, searching those two rooms within
Couredh city. Unknown observers, Tyrus and Erejzan watched and searched with
him. They beheld dainty objects and feminine garments laid over racks,
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awaiting their mistresses' pleasure. There were pallets behind screens where
personal maids slept near to their ladies, ready to wake should they be
needed. Two rooms. Two sets of garments and jewels and accompanying finery.
With a fraction of his attention, Tyrus assessed these things, seeing the
tight breeches and slashed panels and closely-cut bodices of the garments,
identifying these as stylish costumes such as noblewomen would wear on an
outing. A hawking expedition! What they were seeing was now, and the clothes
had been thus put out by the maids so that LaRenya and her sister could dress
early in the morning and be about their enjoyment at Drita Meadows!
Vraduir's glance, too, swept over the jewels and garments, bored and
disinterested. Then his probing sorcery rushed across one room and hovered by
the bed standing there.
With a soft gasp of pain, Erejzan expressed Tyrus' horror as well as his own,
though Erejzan's was the greater. Vraduir's vision-glass was spying on LaSirin
Ilissa.
She was asleep, poignantly lovely, a child-woman, exquisitely innocent.
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