Anna, the butler, and my father’s chamberlain all rushed into the hall to meet me.
“It’s all right,” I said. “Here I am. Pa isn’t too worried, is he?”
Anna looked guilty. “Well, my lady, when Richard came back and said where you were, seeing as you had William and Stephen with you and they’ve been all over the continent with his grace, we really didn’t feel it necessary to say more than that you were out. And when William and Stephen came back, well, we knew you were still all right, and that you were with a capable man, as you told them. And since you’d already said you might not be back till late… Well, in short, my lady, your father has been asleep since late afternoon, and we haven’t troubled to wake him. So, well, he doesn’t know you weren’t back at a normal hour.”
I eyed the three sheepish-looking adults and had to smile. “Anna,” I said, clasping the woman’s hands, “you have done exactly the right thing. See, here I am, quite all right.” Now. But I didn’t want anything getting back to my father belatedly and worrying him, and I definitely could not risk my father confining me to the house.
“Rather damp,” said the housekeeper, touching my sleeve and trying to shepherd me up the stairs. I turned determinedly towards the drawing room, but Anna stopped me. “Lady Serapia,” she said, and I noticed that the other two servants had made themselves scarce. “You left so early, so you don’t know, but…your father did not come downstairs today. He sat in the armchair in his room for a few hours, but then he had to lie down again. He was just so tired.”
I swallowed hard. Anna’s expression suggested that there was more.
“Well?” I asked in a strangled voice.
“Well…I think you should know. The physician was here today.”
I struggled to remain calm. “What did he say?”
“He…he does not think your father has very long. At all.” I bit my lip far too hard and Anna continued hastily, “Could you not…be around more? Your father is constantly asking after you and we always have to tell him that you are out.”
I headed for the stairs in silence and made no reply. I couldn’t really explain to Anna just why I was never around.
~+~
Genuinely fully recovered by now, I got up early the next morning to accompany the family up to the fort entrance to see Alvidra off. Ystevan had brought his basket out with him, and afterwards left to gather food, and I went back inside with Haliath, asked her what clan Alliron belonged to, and accordingly set out for the hall of Clan Tarabil. When I arrived, I chose a place on a bench that commanded a view of all the wooden doors and settled down to await the emergence of the elfin lord.
I’d decided to try persuading Alliron first, because I couldn’t help feeling grateful to Ystevan. As the Queen had so casually pointed out, it would have been the easiest thing in the world for him to sabotage my chances before I even entered the Queen’s hall. I might never even have known why the Queen had said no.
~+~
I waited right through until evening, but no Lord Alliron emerged. I returned to Haliath’s chambers, puzzled and frustrated by the guardian’s apparent abandonment of all his duties, only to have Ystevan—clearly torn between sympathy and amusement—break it to me that there were back passages all over the fort. A whole day wasted!
Well, I wouldn’t make that mistake again.
The next morning, I helped Haliath as much as I could, since both Ystevan—and no doubt Alliron—had gone out gathering and there was no point scouring the surrounding area for them.
Later in the afternoon, I set off for the Queen’s Hall and positioned myself behind a pillar in the antechamber. I hadn’t seen another exit from the hall, although there might be one. But I hoped vaguely that the jewel-bestudded crystal walls might mute the elfin lord’s ability to sense me until it was too late.
With this end also in view, I called as many dragonets to me as I could—though Eraldis just gave me a look and flew off—until I was so covered in the friendly—but hot!—little creatures that sweat ran down my brow. Ystevan had sensed dragonet power on me before, but Alliron would not associate me with the creatures, so I hoped I wasn’t standing there overheating myself for nothing.
After some time, the doors opened, and counselors began to drift out in groups, talking. Alliron eventually appeared, so deep in conversation with a middle-aged she-elf that I wondered if I’d needed to bother with my fiery little friends, whom I now shooed quickly away, stepping around the pillar and striding towards my prey.
Alliron’s eyes flicked to me almost at once, and he threw a look over his shoulder at Ystevan, who followed not far behind. “This one’s yours,” he said caustically.
“Actually, Lord Alliron, I was hoping to speak to you,” I said as sweetly as possible.
“Shame. I'm too busy.” The he-elf turned away from me.
I planted myself firmly in his way, struggling not to get angry at his brusque manner. “I'm sure you can spare a few minutes.” The words came out rather more grimly than I’d intended.
Ystevan snorted with laughter as the older he-elf eyed the human obstruction with great dissatisfaction. “If you wanted her to show consideration to your plans you shouldn’t have left her sitting there all day,” he remarked in passing.
“I have no idea what this little exhibition is in aid of,” the older guardian told me scathingly, as the other counselors drifted away and I continued to obstruct him. “I have already given you my answer, and I don’t for a moment suppose that you have forgotten it.”
“Indeed,” I said, “I am aware that we have already spoken ever so briefly on this subject, but considering that a man’s life is at stake, I'm sure you’ll be happy to discuss it more fully, rather than make the wrong decision...”
My reasonable words seemed to have no effect whatsoever.
“You think wrongly,” said the he-elf coldly. “I don’t doubt that you presented your case as fully and persuasively as you possibly could to the Queen, hence I have given you a more than fair hearing already. And considering the undeniable facts of the affair, there is clearly nothing to discuss. Your father is a sorcerer. He will die of it. The sooner the better. Now excuse me. I have more important things to do with my time...”
This time his effort was so determined that he made it past me, and since I could not hope to catch up with his long-legged stride, I was left standing there, caught halfway between anger and disappointment.
Finally, I set off back to the clan hall of Valunis, struggling to think what argument I could possibly bring to bear to penetrate such stubborn obstinacy.
He wouldn’t even listen to me! How could I possibly persuade him if he wouldn’t even hear what I had to say? I didn’t have time for this! I’d been here for days already! I had to get one of them to come back with me right away!
~+~
CHAPTER 39
A GUARDIAN’S DUTY
I was dreaming again... The Duke sat in his armchair by the fire, head resting against the wing of the chair, clearly asleep. Or dozing, at any rate. A heavy old book lay on his knee. I peered unconsciously with my borrowed eyes and determined that it was an Arthurian romance from the library.
Raven felt...frayed, and my father looked terrible. The skin was drawn over the bones of his face, cheeks and eyes growing sunken, fingers skeletal. He looked desperately ill, and when the butler appeared beside the chair and woke him with a respectful, “My lord?” he raised his head wearily, as if even that were a great effort.
“Yes?” he inquired, stroking under Raven’s chin with one gentle finger. I ached to be able to give him better comfort than the company of even that faithful little companion.
“It is late, my lord,” pointed out the butler matter-of-factly. “I thought you might wish to retire.”
The Duke glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece, yawning. “Indeed,” he said simply, and allowed the Butler to lever him from the chair, keeping a more than supportive hand under his arm as they made their way slowly from
the room. Raven leapt from the chairback and ran after them, cutting off the dream with an abruptness that spoke almost of irritation.
~+~
I let Hellion amble across the steep hillside at his own pace, lost in thought and wrapped in a lingering sense of urgency after that dream. Another day had been sufficient to convince me that Alliron was a waste of time. Even were he not much older than Ystevan, and correspondingly more rigid in his ideas, I just could not corner him often enough, let alone get far enough into a conversation with him, to hold out any serious hope of changing his mind at any time in the next decade. Which was rather longer than I had available to me.
I simply had to get home! I had to get back in time to at least...say goodbye...
No, I wasn’t thinking like that! I pulled Hellion up with a gentle twitch of the reins as we approached a cliff edge with a stunning vista back towards the mountain of Torr Elkyn. My shoulders squared, though I couldn’t help sighing, but Raven's impatience could not be ignored. I had no time left. I would simply have to turn my attentions to my kind host.
Not, of course, that he was strictly my host, for I had learned that among the Elfin she-elves owned chambers, and a he-elf would only ever hold a set of chambers in trust until he should marry, at which point ownership of the chambers would revert to his she-elfen. It was a system that I found it quite hard to get my head around, but which I regarded as being far from unpleasant. Ystevan didn’t seem to mind that his mother owned their chambers. He clearly viewed the idea of a man inheriting property by default with just as much surprise as I viewed their system.
But that was beside the point. I turned Hellion and let him amble on his way back towards the fort. The point was, that I was not so blind as to think that Ystevan, whose view on sorcery could hardly be called flexible, could be persuaded to help my father without long debate, that was, argument, and in short, many ructions to our domestic peace. If only I could have persuaded Alliron!
I allowed Hellion to break into a canter across a flat area of slope. I would have to go on somewhat carefully with Ystevan. If I upset things too much, it was not beyond the bounds of possibility that he would send me to live with some other family, and then he would become almost as inaccessible as Alliron. I must avoid that at all cost.
Anyway, I didn’t want to go and stay somewhere else.
~+~
Even at that hour in the morning there were already several gentlemen in the chocolate house and a couple of ladies, their maids standing behind their chairs inhaling as deeply and surreptitiously as possible.
“I want to be your maid forever and ever, Lady Serapia,” sighed Susie, sipping her chocolate with an expression of bliss on her face.
“You are an excellent maid,” I said absently, sipping my own chocolate with rather less appreciation than usual, eyes on the door. “I do not see why you should not have a cup of chocolate.”
Susie clearly considered it impolitic to reply, “Well, the price!” and went on sipping away happily.
My mind strayed back to my stay at the fort, and my previous attempt—attempts?—to persuade the recalcitrant guardian...
I returned Hellion to his stall after his much-needed exercise and headed back up the entrance tunnel to the open air, directing my steps along the mountainside to where I thought I’d spotted a certain he-elf.
Sure enough, there was Ystevan, standing, running his hands, finger-spread, over something invisible. His eyes were half-closed, and occasionally his fingers twitched as if smoothing or manipulating something. His faithful little—or not so little—dragonet was curled around his shoulders, but as I approached Eraldis gave his customary affectionate head rub to Ystevan, and flew off with his—equally customary—disapproving snort in my direction.
I hovered uncertainly, afraid of disturbing Ystevan, and indeed, after a moment, he said, without opening his eyes fully, “Perhaps you could stand outside the ward...”
I assumed that outside was on the other side of him from the mountain, and complied, but he had not sounded annoyed. I watched him for a while, but there was not a lot to see, and I wasn’t sorry when he took his hands away, raised his head and turned to look at me.
“That will hold for another night,” he remarked, clearly satisfied with his work.
“Did I distract you?” I asked, and then, as I absorbed his words, “Only one night?”
He smiled. “Having you so close inside the ward...well, I was picking up a human presence so strongly that it was rather hard to feel anything else. But outside was fine. And the ward...this bit probably won’t need touching again for days, but that’s just because the demon will almost certainly have a go at a different bit next time.”
More questions about wards blossomed in my mind, but I resisted the temptation to ask. I must not get distracted. I had time only to discuss my father, nothing else. Racking my brains as to how I should bring up the matter, I followed, keeping outside the wards, as Ystevan walked on around the mountain, trailing one hand along the invisible ward beside him.
But when I finally drew in a breath to speak, he turned his head to me with a very sharp look, and spoke instead. “I will not heal a sorcerer, little one, so do not think me an easier target than Alliron.”
“We are having a conversation,” I said sourly. “That automatically makes you an easier target than Alliron.”
The he-elf barked a short laugh, half his attention clearly still on the ward under his left hand.
“If you’re saying no, you could at least enlarge your reason for doing so.”
“So you can start thinking up counter arguments, you mean?” queried the guardian, arching a brow at me. “Still, I suppose I should explain myself. I might convince you.” He did not sound very hopeful, though.
He took his hand away from the ward and stopped walking. Apparently, we had come to the end of his section. He turned to face me, and for all he was still refusing me, it was so nice to have someone taking me seriously about all this...
“Ooh, that’s a tall, lean fellow.” Susie’s remark jerked me from the memory and I looked up in time to see Ystevan entering the room.
I watched as patiently as I could whilst the he-elf got himself a cup of chocolate and had a quick word with the proprietor. Coins changed hands. Finally, he approached. “We may have the garden for our private use,” he told me and nodded towards the back door.
Susie giggled and shot me an apologetic look, no doubt for her previous comment.
“Come along, Susie,” I said briskly.
Susie sprang up and gave her cup an anguished look.
“Bring your chocolate,” I urged her, so she seized it and followed us.
The garden was fairly small, overhung all around with creeper. There were seats here and there, so I indicated the one by the door. “If you wait there, Susie, that will be best.”
Walking with Ystevan to the farthest end of the garden, I looked around for a seat. But he drew me towards a wooden gate in the wall, largely overhung by the foliage, and pulled it open. “There is a park behind here. Far more private than this place with so many walls, behind which one knows not who listens.”
I shot a look back down the garden, found that we were well hidden from Susie and followed him through.
“Have you reconsidered about healing my father?” I demanded urgently, as soon as we had settled ourselves on a grassy knoll under some tall shady trees—the sun was shining ever so brightly today—and well away from any eavesdropping walls. If the physician was right, I was almost out of time entirely.
Ystevan gave me a rather frustrated look. “There is nothing to reconsider. Sorcerer, remember?”
“Father, remember?” I said. “And he’s not a sorcerer. He just did one bad, foolish thing many, many years ago. If he were really a sorcerer, he could have saved his own life by now. He has what he needs. But he will not do it. Nothing will make him touch sorcery again, do you understand? Nothing.”
“No,” said Ystevan quietly. �
��The answer is no.” He placed his cup beside my empty one, staring off across the park. There was no one else in sight at all, right now. Raven was sitting happily on my shoulder, hidden from any distant gaze by my hair.
“Won’t you explain? Please?”
“I’ve explained, Serapia,” he said tiredly. “I explained until I was hoarse.”
“Are you looking for sympathy? Because I’m afraid you’ll just have to explain again, since for some reason, I can’t remember your poor throat’s torment!”
Ystevan sighed heavily. Looked at me intently and—recited? From memory? “The threat posed to the Elfin by sorcery is actually very similar to that posed by dark elfin...”
It was enough...
“The actions of the former put us in danger unintentionally,” Ystevan told me, his hand straying, absent-mindedly, back to the invisible ward beside him, “not that a sorcerer would care, while the second endanger us deliberately, but apart from that the scenario is similar. Supernatural events occur among the humans, and someone is usually seized, although often not the sorcerer and usually not the dark elfin responsible. Sometimes it is just a scapegoat. This sends tales and rumors all over the country, sparking countless other alarms and/or scapegoat-seizures, which in turn fuel more rumors.
“In some places, if the panic and suspicion whipped up is sufficient, then the humans will attack anything supernatural, whether it has any connection to sorcery or the devil whatsoever. Such mobs are mindless and vicious, sometimes so much so that they will forget all the good the Elfin have done in a certain area in the face of the sole fact of our ‘supernaturalness’. It doesn’t happen very often,” he conceded, “but when it does it is usually very nasty. Especially for sheiling-forts. Torr-forts are much safer due to size and isolation.”
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