The flying carpet came up to the battlements. I had it make a stair up the inner wall of the battlement walkway so everyone could climb on with ease.

* It is good that those of you who should come with me are all dressed for travel. Those who use swords should take weapons from the watch. I will not waste time for those who do not already have them to get their own. I recommend that Father Garshom, Duke Valgard, Duchess Dora, Count Henri, Duke Sven, and both princes come with me. *

“I should go," the short and round viscountess insisted.

I must have reacted with an expression of disbelief because Lord Estevan defended his wife. "Lady Fuzzy, Alianora is the best fighter in the fortress, her chainmail is underneath her functional short-hemmed work gown, and her axe and buckler are already on her belt."

* Please join us, Viscountess. Will everyone get on? I will explain as we travel. *

“Why am I taking orders from a cougar?” Duke Valgard grumped.

“My experience with Fuzzy suggests that if she thinks this is what we need to do, then this is what we need to do," Father Garshom glared at the old Duke.

Duke Valgard shrugged, "if that's your opinion, then what are we waiting for?" He started relieving the nearby soldiers on-duty of their swords. He passed out the weapons to the unarmed, namely himself, Garshom, and Henri. Willam, Sven, Dora, and Alianora showed up armed.

Flying the carpet was easy for most of the trip. I cast the barrier and the spell for straight and level flight. Once in effect, neither spell required any work. Having set up the carpet, I then filled in the passengers on what I saw in the crystal.

* I will be brief. I can not explain much of what I saw. What I did observe requires immediate action on our part. The palace and temple are both on fire. The north wing of the palace looks like there was a large explosion. It is mostly gone, and the square has debris strewn about in a semi-circular pattern often seen in explosions. The Regent’s guard is doing a decent job of getting people out of both burning buildings. There do not appear to be mages on hand who can put out fires other than Beaver Tooth and Cloud Eye. Andray, your mother and Sleeping Willow are down in the closest House of the Sisters of Matadee's Hands, healing injuries and burns. The Sahkeena disguised as one of Matadee's Sisters is with your mother and cousin. She's taken over part of the House's response to the victims coming in. Wren, Owl, Fox, Proud Elk, and Storm Eagle, all dressed as adventurers, are part of a unit of city guards, Regent guards, and volunteers who are wetting nearby buildings to keep the fire from spreading, and evacuating the northwest portions of the city. Many in the dungeon under the south wing are dead from the effects of the explosion. Estrella de Teep is not one of them. She appears to be in charge of one of the units evacuating the northwest quarter, and the Regent's guards are following her orders. The Queen is in the throne room and refuses to leave. Magus Keleher is missing, along with the King and Princess Aricia. *

“Did someone attack the palace?” Willam wondered. “Why would it explode?”

“I believe I can explain that," said Father Garshom, surprising everyone.

* Rock gas?* I guessed. I knew rock gas was associated with the sediments of ancient swamps under Tammer Butte.

“Yes, Lady Fuzzy," he wore a grim expression, "rock gas. The square between the temple and the palace was once a place where flares appeared. Those inexplicable flares convinced our ancestors that Tammer Butte was holy ground. The flares continue to appear until about a thousand years ago. Even now, we don't know why they self-ignited. Regardless, they became a danger as the city grew over the centuries. Our ancestors discovered the source of the rock gas. They vented the temple and sealed the surface of the square to stop the flares.

“Tammer Butte is mostly flat on top because of a flat layer of basalt underneath its topsoil layer. The palace and temple are located on the large hill on the west edge of the butte which rises above the basalt layer. The palace's cellars and dungeon are floored by basalt. The temple is different and has a sub-basement floored by rocks similar to those with coal and tar seeps in them.

"The temple is much older than the palace. When the square and surrounding streets were sealed a thousand years ago, an acolyte set off a small explosion shortly afterward when lighting the candles in the crypt. Ever since then, once a week for a thousand years, the temple staff opens the underground vents. Those vents have openings in the vertical cliff face of the butte, grills cut into the rock many feet high but only a few fingers wide, to keep out invaders.

"All able-bodied persons, from the bishop down to the lowest pot scrubber, must man the great bellows to vent the air in the sub-basement, and the secret tunnel between the crypt and the wine cellar of the palace. I suspect that my replacement as Bishop of Tammerhof did not bother with the venting ritual. I heard he didn't believe it was necessary given there has been no evidence of rock gas for a millennium. The most plausible cause of an explosion is that rock gas traveled up the secret tunnel from the crypt in the sub-basement into the wine cellar of the palace. The tunnel is recent, only three hundred years old."

Duke Sven growled when Father Garshom finished, "only the bishop, the king, and the king's children learn of the tunnel. The children are told only when they come of age at seventeen, now sixteen under the Regent." The look in Sven's eyes was murderous, "so we have another crime to lay at the feet of Bishop Geralt de Ramnerburg. I’m looking forward to his trial and execution. No doubt, he is suffering his punishment from the goblins. I wonder how far he’s managed to walk?”

“What did the goblins do to the soon-to-be-former Bishop of Tammerhof?” Viscountess Alianora asked while sitting crosslegged and sharpening her axe head. “I haven’t heard any of this news yet.”

“The Bishop’s four henchmen that my mother embedded in my ballistae troops were executed for the attempted murder of the Elven Princess Roaming Wren,” Willam’s growl was indistinguishable from his Uncle Sven’s. “The Bishop, out of consideration of his priesthood, was granted the mercy of not being executed. Instead, he was stripped naked and every part of him was shaved. In that naked state, he was sentenced to walk barefoot back to Nordweg while wearing a yoke and gag. He is banned from ever entering Gorgurak ever again on pain of death."

“Merciful Matadee, what a shame they didn’t lob off his head,” the Viscountess tested the edge of her axe with a grim smile.

“That would have been too good for him,” Willam remarked. “His henchmen were quartered, not decapitated.”

“Gruesome but effective,” Alianora decided. “I wonder how soon the Bishop will arrive home? A trial for that snake would be welcome.”

“He’s 37 leagues from the border crossing," Father Garshom smiled malevolently. "He's made very little progress because the blisters on his feet keep getting infected. One can only hope that Mother Matadee is indeed merciful and takes him from this life before he arrives at the border."

My boy suddenly broke into his crowd-winning smile, with a huge side order of innocence and guilelessness, and a golden halo of sainthood. This apotheosis of smiles was aimed right at Father Garshom. The good priest had the wisdom to look wary.

“Dearest Father Garshom,” the sincerity in my boy’s voice caught the attention of everyone on the carpet, “how is it that you know exactly how far the good bishop has walked when none of us has had any way to communicate with the goblins, other than by scrying with other mages?” His honest face in the pursuit of knowledge would warm the heart of any teaching professional.

“I...I received via messenger owl from Queen Margo,” Father Garshom confessed in a level voice.

“Ah, that explains it then,” Cat smiled even wider, “a message from the Goblin Queen carried by an elven messenger owl would indeed place such news at your disposal with timely dispatch. Pray tell, when were you planning on sharing it with the rest of us; or maybe I should say, with those you haven’t already shared it with? Did you know about this, Fuzzy?”

* Not at all. * He knew my mental voice so well that he could tell I wasn't lying. I could tell from the carefully-neutral looks on Valgard’s, Dora's, and Sven's faces that they knew Garshom's news.

“I’m sure it was just a simple oversight,” Cat’s lack of accusation and malice stabbed Garshom where Cat had already wounded him and turned the knife like an apple corer.

“By Helle’s ice, since when did you start weaponizing that smile of yours?” Garshom whimpered.

Cat just smiled in reply.