“Kindness?” she said with a disgusted tone, as if the word were a highly contagious disease. “That’s the best they can come up with? That’s how they honor my attempts to elevate my leadership skills?”
“Well,” he said, doing his best to speak clearly without stuttering. “No, I meant, well, I just meant they’re noticing your efforts, saying many different words—all very glowing words, actually. Your esteem has skyrocketed in their eyes. In, uh, mine, too.”
Jane folded her arms, glaring directly into Frazier’s eyes. “Do you think I’m stupid, Frazier?”
She’s going to kill me, he thought. Right now, after all these years, she’s going to kill me because she’s finally gone completely and totally insane.
“Stupid?” he repeated. “Of course I don’t think you’re stupid.”
Jane leaned over and whispered in his ear. “Then don’t speak to me like I’m stupid.”
She sat back, looking at the fire, her face expressionless. After several seconds, Frazier followed her gaze and caught his breath.
Several burning logs had floated up into the air and out of the main hearth, hovering above a rug made from the skin of a scallywag beast. Sparks and hot cinders fell from the logs, igniting several long hairs of the soft fur, which flared and died out quickly. A mess of white ash flew up from the fireplace, swirling around the flames in midair in fancy patterns, spelling words and making faces. Frazier felt a familiar icy fear in his gut, thinking of such power in the hands of a woman as unstable as Mistress Jane.
With a hiss and crackle, the whole show collapsed back into the fireplace; in seconds, it looked like the fire hadn’t been disturbed at all.
“Now,” Jane said, folding her arms and returning her focus to Frazier. “I know people are worried that my attempts to change are insincere. If anything, they seem more frightened of me than ever. Correct?”
Frazier nodded, not daring to say a word.
“This doesn’t bother me. Not in the least. I’ve been . . . unwise in some of my leadership methods. Perhaps even cruel. I know it will take time—a long time—to change.” Jane shifted in her seat, looking toward the window on the other side of the room, muted light from the cloudy day spilling through onto her bed. “All I ever wanted was to make things better, Frazier. That’s all I still want. If I need to adapt how I rule things, then so be it.”
She turned her neck, looking once again at Frazier, her eyes narrowed. “But we will take over the Realities. We will spread the goodness and power of the Chi’karda from the Thirteenth Reality to the others. And in the end, we will make the universe a better place for all. This, I promise you.”
Frazier nodded again, throwing all the sincerity he could into his expression. Jane’s words, filled with passion, had moved him greatly. He remembered why he had followed this woman for so many years, despite the constant danger. He remembered . . . and felt ashamed of the many times he’d hoped to topple her and take over.
“Mistress Jane,” he said. “I . . . I . . . I don’t know what to—”
“Say nothing,” she snapped, a sudden thunderclap shaking the room. It was a trick she performed often. “You’ve earned yourself back into my full graces. You’re my most loyal servant. You will be beside me, always. Nothing else needs to be said.”
A long pause followed, thoughts churning inside Frazier’s mind. How do I act now? What do I say? His fear of Jane hadn’t diminished in the least—if anything, it had grown stronger.
Thankfully, Jane got back to business. “You said you had an update on the Barrier Wand and some interesting news. Well, get on with—” She paused, forcing a smile. “Please, report.”
Frazier leaned forward, grunting as he pulled himself out of the soft cushions, and put his elbows on his knees. “They’ve found a place in a small mountain range about five hundred miles away—they’ve spotted signs of ore. It looks encouraging. The Diggers are hunting as we speak. As soon as they find a deposit, I’ll let you know.”
“Once they do,” Jane said, “we should need only two or three more weeks.”
“That’s right. The metal is the last thing we need to reconstruct the Wand.”
Something floated up from a shelf near the bed, flying through the air and landing with a thump in Jane’s outreached palm. She held it out for Frazier to see—a complex bundle of wires, pipework, gears, and nanochips—the Chi’karda Drive she’d removed from her previous Barrier Wand. The one Atticus Higginbottom had stolen.
“What’s the other news?” Jane asked.
Frazier shifted uncomfortably. His news was very strange, and he worried about her reaction. “Well, some of our hunters discovered an interesting . . . thing.” He paused, unsure how to proceed.
“A thing?” Jane repeated. “Your descriptive skills are less than apt, Frazier.”
“Sorry.” He rubbed his hands together. “I guess I’ll just say it how it is.”
“Brilliant idea.”
Frazier tried to laugh, but it came out as a snort. “Way out in the Forest of Plague, near the spot of the old battleground, they found a place where hundreds of trees have been cut down. Each stump is perfectly flat, as if the trees had been cut with a laser or something.”
Jane tilted her head, obviously intrigued. “Interesting. I can’t think of anyone . . .”
When she trailed off, looking at the fire, Frazier continued. “Right, no one in our Reality has that kind of technology. But, um, that’s not the weird part. Not even close.”
That caught Jane’s attention; her eyebrows rose.
“The trees . . .” Frazier said.
“Did someone take them? Did they burn them? That area has enormous trees—some taller than the fortress.”
Frazier shook his head. “I know, which makes the next part really bizarre. I couldn’t tell what had happened until I flew on the back of a fangen and looked down from above.”
“What do you mean?” Jane asked.
“Somehow, whoever cut those trees down . . . arranged them on the ground so they spelled out words.”
“Spelled out words?” Jane repeated. “With trees?”
“Yes. They formed letters out of the tree trunks. Really big trees that made really big words.” He laughed at himself but stopped abruptly.