The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

it wouldn’t last. As soon as the air current changed, they’d lose more altitude.
    “It’s all mountains, ravines, and ridges for hundreds of miles around here,” Rollett said flatly. “Even the dragon that brought Nimbulan and me here last year had trouble finding a place to land.”

Chapter 43
     
    Home of Myrilandel, Ambassador from the Nimbus of Dragons, Coronnan City
     
    “Y our Grace, we can deal with the Rovers later. But we have to stop Scarface now, tonight!” Bessel insisted. He couldn’t let a few narrow-minded men destroy the precious storehouse of knowledge. Just because they didn’t need a piece of information this moment, didn’t mean it might not prove useful—essential—later.
    And Scarface’s comment about familiars—He didn’t have time to dwell on that. Any threat to Mopsie was a threat to Bessel now.
    “It is not enough that we know a cure for the plague,” Nibulan said, trying to rise.
    “Don’t even think about getting up,” Katie and Myri said in unison, pointing warning fingers at him.
    Nimbulan meekly lay back down again.
    Bessel took a long look at his master and bit his lip in sympathetic pain. Nimbulan’s gray face and labored breathing hinted at death stalled, not removed.
    Don’t you desert me, too, Master. I still need you.
    “Our first concern is to save the library.” Nimbulan held up his left hand, palm outward, fingers slightly curved while he thought out loud. The familiar gesture reassured Bessel a little. “By the law of the Stargods, only magicians, priests, and healers may learn to read. Surely Commune Magicians, who can have no secrets from each other, can be trusted guardians of knowledge before it is lost? We have lost so much through the generations. Communal magic is supposed to replace distrust and the willful hiding of precious information.”
    “Scarface doesn’t trust anyone he can’t control,” Queen Katie mused, tapping her chin.
    “He’s also afraid that everyone is out to kill him,” Bessel muttered. “He has to control everyone around him to make sure they don’t kill him. He’s using rogue compulsions to keep their loyalty.”
    Nimbulan winced at him. “For once, I am grateful I no longer have my magic. In my weakened state, I’m not certain I could resist his compulsion.”
    “All of us in this room have proved to him time and again that he can’t control us,” Queen Katie continued. “Scarface knows as well as we do that what we don’t know can hurt us. He’s using the library as leverage to stay in power as Senior Magician.”
    “The time has come to arrest the man.” Quinnault squared his shoulders in determination. But Bessel saw his hands grip the hilt of his short sword too fiercely. He didn’t like that option.
    “Stop and think a moment, Your Grace,” Bessel said cautiously. “If Scarface can control the entire Commune—magicians of great power who in concert could subdue him with a thought—what will he do to the mundane guards you send to arrest him? There isn’t a prison cell built that could restrain him. There isn’t a sword that can touch him.” If I can’t return to the Commune with Mopsie, then I’ll remain outside, serving Coronnan and the king in secret. But if we can depose Scarface, there’s still a chance for me and for Mopsie. The instant of oneness he had shared with Wind-drift haunted him.
    “He’s right, Scarecrow,” Queen Katie agreed. “With the Commune backing him, Scarface could manipulate the entire kingdom into deposing you.”
    “King Kinnsell manipulates the lords of my Council. Scarface misuses the magical power of the Commune. Rovers incite the people to fear me and my men. The provinces are in near revolt over the plague. What happened to the careful balance we built into this government, Nimbulan? What happened to the honor, ethics, and control you built into the Commune?” Quinnault clenched his fists as if needing to slam them into something, preferably Scarface’s jaw.
    “Scarface believes he is providing unified leadership for the good of the kingdom,” Bessel offered. “I slipped inside his mind. He thinks he’s being honorable and ethical in guiding the Commune and therefore, the kingdom.” Memory of the twisted loops and dark caverns of Master Aaddler’s mind made him shudder.
    For half a moment Bessel knew the compulsion to follow Scarface’s logic and agree with him. The older magician’s memories of atrocities inflicted on him and by him