Ritual Magic

better to focus on how the clans should handle this. We’ll need to get in touch with the other Rhos.”
    “Who are not going to appreciate the fact that the president knows about the Great War.”
    “The Lady never forbade our speaking of it. That’s tradition, but Nokolai broke no covenant by revealing historical facts the rest of the world was unaware of.”
    “Until now. Or soon, anyway.” Rule looked at Karonski. “When does she intend to speak?”
    “Tomorrow night at nine Eastern. She’d like to have you and possibly some of the other Rhos join her electronically afterward, if you could be at a local television studio.”
    Rule scowled. “I don’t know if that’s wise.”
    Isen spoke. “Will the president insist on a script? If not, this would be a chance to spin the revelation the way we wish.”
    Rule cast his father a glance. “It might, if we knew how we wished to spin it.”
    Both Benedict and Cullen started to say something at the same time.
    Delay this discussion,
Sam told them in a voice sharp enough to cut
. I need to relate the other matter that brought me to join your council tonight. I have learned much concerning the artifact in Friar’s possession.
    “You heard from that agent you sent to the sidhe?” Lily asked.
    In a manner of speaking. I suspected that the artifact disrupts time, which—
    “It
what
?”
    Everyone else reacted, too. Cynna repeated, “Disrupts time?” Arjenie exclaimed wordlessly. Isen frowned. Rule asked what that meant. Karonski said, “Son of a bitch!”
    And Cullen sat bolt upright. “It’s named?”
    That was an odd reaction even for the magic-obsessed Cullen. Never mind that the artifact disrupted time—he was worried that it had a name. Lily frowned at him. “Why did you—”
    Be quiet. I do not have time for endless questions. Your sorcerer’s astonishment denotes a decent grasp of reality. A number of spells and rituals cause a minor disruption of time, either intentionally or inadvertently. Gates, for example. However, time is resilient and extremely difficult to damage in a meaningful or sustained manner; most such workings have no lasting repercussions, except at times for the practitioner who attempts them. I was not, initially, alarmed by the flux. It was quite minor. Even among those capable of discerning such phenomena, very few who are not dragon would have noticed it.
    However, it was still present after I finished working on Julia Yu’s mind. This did alarm me. In addition, I observed a troubling flow in the probabilities. I sent an inquiry outlining my observations via an agent to one of the sidhe—you might call him a historian—whom I know in Iath.
    This time it was Arjenie who was startled into speaking. “Iath? The Queens’ home realm? But their time is completely different from ours. It will take months to hear back, surely.”
    Arjenie did not get told to be quiet.
Iath is highly dissynchronous with our realm, making communication difficult, but there are ways of managing this. My agent planned to travel through multiple dissynchronous realms, managing her route in a manner that allowed her to arrive in Iath at a now that corresponds roughly to three days ago in our time.
    Lily looked at Rule. “Did you understand that?”
    “If I did, then Sam’s agent arrived before she left.”
    Sam ignored them.
My agent did reach the historian. I have not, however, spoken with her myself. I received her report from the emissary from the Queen of Winter who arrived outside my lair approximately two hours ago. Winter invites me most courteously to visit her and discuss this matter in person.
    Lily’s breath hissed in. That was . . . good? Bad? Major, anyway. “Is that the kind of offer you can’t turn down?”
    Naturally I could turn it down, if I wished. I do not. I have been in conversation with Winter’s emissary. Much of what I will tell you comes from that source; I judge it to be incomplete but accurate. The artifact in Robert Friar’s possession is almost certainly a knife called Nam Anthessa.
I refer to it by a call-name; its true name has been lost for centuries. Its existence violates Queens’ Law. It is used to tamper with the dead.
    “Oh,” Arjenie breathed. “That’s bad.”
    Yes, in ways you do not comprehend. It means, first, that Alan Debrett is not simply dead. The knife cut him out of time, making it as if he never existed. You will note that this loss does not affect the material world; his daughter