Yes warred with hope, and hope won, although it was close. “Can you place a guard upon this door, and this building, to ensure that it is not used again without your knowledge?”
“Now that I am aware of it, yes. I cannot guarantee that there are not other points of exit—or entrance—within the fief.”
“Why?” Kaylin asked.
“Because such doorways did exist when I was first created; they were not, in and of themselves, a danger; they were a path between specific locations. Once, before the fall of Ravellon, such doors existed between the great cities.”
“Great cities?”
Tara shook her head; her wings settled into a comfortable fold. “They are gone now. Ruins remain, if that. They were not mortal cities, and against their height, Elantra counts as little. But I did not think to see such a thing again,” she added.
“I am not averse to the study of the ancient,” Tiamaris finally said. “I spent much of my youth in that endeavor, and it was not always considered either safe or wise. It is possible that Sanabalis may cede some of his mages to the study of this door, should I request it.”
“Would you?”
“I would not have you stand guard in this…building…indefinitely; if the Imperial Order assigns its mages here—”
“Do you trust them?” Kaylin cut in.
“They are not Arcanists,” he replied. “They are beholden to the Emperor.”
“They are, but the fief doesn’t operate under Imperial Law.”
“True. But I believe it can be argued that the mages chosen will be…ambassadors for the Empire. Diplomats.” He smiled. It was not a pleasant smile. “It will prevent me from destroying them if they are overweening in their arrogance, but it will likewise diminish their self-importance.”
“I don’t frankly see how.”
“Many of the mages are interested in the ancient and the unknown; the choice of those who are allowed to study here, of course, will be mine. If they anger, annoy, or bore me, I will send them home; if they attempt to remain, I will send them home in pieces.”
“Why let them come here at all, then?”
“Because there is some small chance they will discover what the purpose of this room is—and was—and while they are here, they will defend it as if it were their personal belonging. Should the Barrani—any Barrani—attempt to access this room and this door from this side, we will know, and the mages will be better prepared than my own humble citizens.” He turned to Tara and said in a quieter voice, “It would be wisest, I think, to relocate those citizens who remain in the building.”
* * *
“There is a real Michael,” Tara told them as they left the building and headed toward the Tower, which took longer because there was no portal and no angry Dragon to sit on. “He is a citizen of the fief. He did not, however, approach Yvander in any way today.”
“Do you think the would-be kidnapper was someone who knew both Michael and Yvander?”
Tara frowned and shook her head. “I think Yvander supplied both the image and the words he thought he heard. What I do not understand,” she said, “is why Yvander was being led across the border, rather than to the building itself. If the room there serves as portal, why was it not used instead?”
“I’m going to guess that the disappearances in Tiamaris aren’t unique. It’s possible they’ve also occurred outside the fief.”
Tara hesitated, and Kaylin marked it. The Avatar’s eyes once again lost the semblance of normal eyes, becoming black stone instead. “My Lord gives me permission to discuss this. He gives you permission to discuss it as well, but asks that any official discussion—with your Sergeant or with the Lord of Hawks—be referred to him.
“I believe the building I was studying in the hall of perception might somehow be involved, but if the Arcanists attempted to create a portal that is similar to the one you discovered, they would find it much, much more difficult beyond the bounds of the fiefs.”
“Why?”
“There is a reason that the Towers were built and a reason they were built here. Beyond the borders of the fiefs, the type of power required would be much, much more significant. If they were very lucky, planned well, and made use of the magical storms that engulfed a large part of the City itself, yes, there is every possibility such a gateway exists in the City proper. The magical storms, however, were not predictable, and I consider their use in this case unlikely. It is not just a matter of power—although power is necessary—but also a matter of precision.”
“But they could build gateways like this in the other fiefs?”
Tara nodded. “They are most likely to be found near the border zones; a singularly powerful but unwise mage might attempt their construction within the zone itself.”
“What is it about the fiefs that make it easier or simpler here?”
Tara shrugged, a gesture that looked, in all details, as if it could have come from Morse. It probably had. “The same thing that allows Ferals to hunt in the streets. The Ferals don’t cross the bridge.”
“You don’t think they can.”
“No.”
“If ‘Michael’ were leading Yvander across the border to Nightshade, it’s likely that a portal exists in Nightshade.”
Tara nodded. “We have been far more vigilant than Barren was capable of being. Given the recent difficulty with the borders, the ongoing threat posed by Shadows that managed to enter the fief during the period of instability, and the necessity of reconstruction, it is more difficult to conduct large-scale and illegal magics without the possibility of detection.”
“You didn’t detect this door.”
“Not immediately.”
They reached the Tower. “Our apologies to the Halls of Law,” Tara said softly. “I do not think the missing boy will be found.”
The doors rolled open; Kaylin remained on the outside. “If people are disappearing, there has to be some reason. The people Tiamaris listed as missing are all human, but they span age and gender. I’ve seen many ways humans can be bought and sold, but their value is entirely dependent on age, gender, and appearance. None of those require something as complicated as the portal. None of them require any level of magic. But magic clearly was used.
“The victims aren’t, as far as you know, in the city anymore. They had to be sent somewhere.”
“They were sent to the outlands,” Tara replied.
“Tara, where are the outlands? Are they even in the Empire?”
“Not in the sense Elantra is, no. But if you mean to ask me why those victims came from the fief, I believe it to be because such a portal could be opened here.”
“Could it be opened in Ravellon?”
“Perhaps—but there is little chance, in my opinion, that the ones who opened the portal would survive the opening.”
“So it had to be here. What purpose would random victims serve?”
“There was once a theory,” Tara replied, “that mortals were malleable because they had no True Names and therefore no confinement. They are not fixed in shape.”
“They are,” Kaylin replied sharply. “If you attempt to break their shape, you generally damage—or kill—them.” But as she spoke, she thought of the Leontines and their story of origin and fell silent.
“The