Issola by Steven Brust Page A

as the fact that they can use the window to reach our world," said Morrolan, "which we were just kind enough to tell them."
    "And you are even now repeating, in case they missed it before."
    "As if—"
    "Oh, cut it out," I said. I flipped two fingers to the world in general, just in case they were watching and the gesture was universal, then noticed for the first time that there didn't seem to be any doors in the room. I took some time to look around the room a little more, feeling all eyes on me, but seeing no need to explain myself. The room was about two hundred feet by a hundred and fifty feet, and empty, save for several tall metal objects that looked a bit like bookshelves, but were devoid of books. Most likely, this was some sort of storage room. And, as far as I could see, there was no way into or out of it. A good way to keep your property from being stolen. I'd have to remember that, in case I ever again had property to protect and the opportunity to protect it.
    "There aren't any doors," I remarked.
    Aliera and Morrolan gave me a look as if I'd just announced that knives were sometimes sharp. Teldra nodded solemnly, but I think she'd already noticed.
    I thought about communicating with them psychically, but without the Orb it's damned difficult, not to mention exhausting.
    Morrolan closed his eyes for a moment, then touched the hilt of Blackwand. "No one is listening to us," he said aloud.
    Aliera's head whipped around, and she stared at him. "How can you know that?"
    "Blackwand is not without power, cousin. Nor, for that matter, am I." Aliera looked dubious, but didn't say anything more.
    "Hey, Boss , do you think the Necromancer has been able to maintain contact?"
    "I'd give whole worlds to know, Loiosh."
    Aloud I said, "Why don't you guys tell me what happened?" They both started speaking at once, which I ought to have predicted; then they glared at each other. Finally, Aliera nodded toward Morrolan, who shrugged and said, "I don't know. I was in the library, and then I was here, being used to ornament this wall."
    "I," said Aliera, "was in my bedchamber." She said this as if being snatched from the library ought to give Morrolan no cause for complaint.
    "You have no idea how it happened?"
    "None," said Aliera. "I was there, then I was here, manacled. I had no sensation of time passing, or that I had lost consciousness, although that proves nothing. On the other hand, Pathfinder has no sensation of time passing, and that, I believe, does prove something."
    "Blackwand and I had the same experience," he said. "Which I hope means that they have the ability to transport us, instantly, off our world and into manacles chained to a wall; because if not, it means they have the ability to interfere with a Great Weapon, and then I should be worried."
    I chewed that over, then asked Morrolan, "You had no indication that, I don't know, your security system had been breached?"
    "No," he said.
    "Is this something they've been able to do any time, and just decided to now? Or do they have something new?"
    "I've been wondering the same thing," said Morrolan.
    "This doesn't give us much to work with," I suggested. "And I don't suppose either of you have any suggestions about getting out of here?"
    They didn't.
    I studied the chains that held them, and was wondering what it would take to break them, and what to do once they were broken, when Aliera said, "If we could reach Sethra—" which is as far as she got before our hosts finally decided to grace us with their presence.

    4

MAKING ACQUAINTANCES

    I was looking at Morrolan and Aliera, and saw their eyes suddenly focus on something over my shoulder, so I turned just as Loiosh gave a sort of agitated, undefined psychic squeal. I don't actually know that they appeared through the floor, but it seemed like it at the time; as if they sort of formed from the floor up. There were two of them. I said, "Are those—?"
    "Yes," said Morrolan. "That's what they look like."
    "Heh. They're