This had been the hardest night of her life, but excitement was still buoying her up, and a warm tub refreshed her. Then she hurried out to her balcony to find a sumptuous meal already being demolished by a starving faun and … bother! … the imp guttersnipe, Thinal.
Rap jumped up when she approached, but the little thief just leered, displaying a mouthful of irregular and dirty teeth. He was wearing nothing but a ragged pair of shorts. He needed a shave, a haircut, and a very thorough washing.
Seeing that conversation would have to wait — and feeling pleasantly hungry after her night’s exertions — Kadolan helped herself to some generous portions and joined in the feasting. No one spoke at all while the eating continued.
Able at last to study him properly, she was surprised at how large and — er — husky, Master Rap was. He was the only faun she had ever met, but she had always understood that fauns were one of the smaller races. Even allowing for the fact that he was sitting next to the puny Thinal, Rap seemed big, larger than most male imps, approaching jotunn or djinn size. Of course he was part jotunn — as was Inos, of course.
Off in the distance, troops of guards were hurrying to and fro, and she could guess that she had thrown the palace authorities into unprecedented turmoil. The thought was not unpleasant.
As her appetite waned she began to wish that Doctor Sagorn was present, to provide some cultured discourse, or even Andor, were he sober. Almost any of the five would be better than Thinal, who tended to stare at her with an appraising, avaricious gaze even as he chewed. He made her feel like a pet rabbit in the presence of something feral, and hungry. His eyes were red-rimmed and he yawned a lot, often when he had his mouth full.
His manners were atrocious, by any standards. Master Rap, on the other hand, was handling his skimpy cutlery — and when necessary his food — very well, much as she did herself. He might require less coaching than she had been anticipating, in order to turn him into a respectable consort for Inos. She wondered if he would consent to having his hair curled; obviously it would never lie flat.
Inos and Azak must have sailed by now, but a mage ought to be able to arrange good-quality transportation, and perhaps even speed its passage. Most ships stopped in at all the major ports along the coast. So she would pursue, with Master Rap’s assistance, and at Brogogo, therefore, or Torkag, they would intercept the sultan. Then Rap could cure Inos’s injuries and use some occult persuasion on Azak to get the marriage annulled. It was still, of course, a marriage in name only.
Once Inos and the faun had been reunited under Kadolan’s tutelage, they could all start giving some thought to the problem of Krasnegar. And if that was insoluble, then a comfortable estate within some pleasantly civilized corner of the Impire ought to be within reach of a mage. Just like one of the poet’s romances — the lovers would find a happy ending!
Feeling extremely pleased with herself — and properly grateful to the Gods, of course — Kade selected another pomegranate. These tropical delicacies certainly helped to compensate for the absence of some of her more familiar favorites.
The two youths ate much faster than she did, but all three seemed to reach their capacity at about the same time. Thinal belched and pushed his chair back. He set to work paring his toenails with a fruit knife. Kadolan dabbed her lips with a linen napkin. Rap poured her another cup of coffee, and one for himself.
Then he glanced at the door and frowned. “You have a visitor, ma’am. I think I can keep us unobserved.”
That seemed likely, after their unremarked return across the palace complex. Before Kadolan could ask what sort of visitor, Mistress Zuthrobe came hurrying in, veiled and wide-eyed with fright.
“His Highness Prince Kar, ma’am!”
Again Kadolan opened her mouth but was prevented from speaking. Without waiting for her invitation, Kar strode out onto the balcony, shadowed by two of the fearsome family men. He came right to her chair and stared down at her with a sinister little smile, as if he were a teacher and she an errant pupil.
She had met the baby-faced chief of security a couple of times at the wedding rehearsals, but even those brief, formal encounters had explained why Inosolan found him so intimidating. The presence of two obvious interlopers at Kadolan’s table was no help in this instance, even if Kar did not seem to notice them.
He turned to regard the Zuthrobe woman, who was fidgeting in the background with the apparent intent of chaperoning the unorthodox interview. He did not need to speak — his expression alone was enough to send her fleeing back indoors. Then he resumed his baleful inspection of Kadolan.
“You are expecting company, I understand?”
She plied him with her most innocent smile, “Well, Inosolan called on me last night. I am aware that she has departed.”
“And?” A smile so thin on Kar implied a scowl.
From the corner of her eye, Kadolan could tell that the invisible Thinal was making obscene gestures at Kar, causing Rap to grin faintly.
“And I understand that the departure is to be kept secret as long as possible. I thought I could start a rumor that they had eaten breakfast here, muddy the waters a little.”
His eyes were chips of pink granite. “His Majesty is touring the northlands this morning.”
“Oh!” Kadolan said. “Well, that’s nice. Then I have provided a secondary alibi?”
“You have weakened a cover story that cost enormous preparation. You did not eat all that by yourself.”
Beginning to feel flustered, she waved a hand at the empty air beyond the balcony. “Of course not, your Highness.”
Now his smile would have frozen the marrow of her bones had she not had a mage within reach. “I feel that these quarters are inadequate, ma’am. We may be able to find you something more appropriate and more easily guarded.”
“These are quite satisfactory. I find the antiques fascinating. Something is wrong?”
“Intruders are prowling the palace. Guards have been murdered — and the faun has escaped!”
“I am delighted to hear it,” she said calmly. “If you think I am hiding him, then I grant you leave to search my quarters.”
“My men already did.” Kar spun on his heel and strode out, his spurs jingling. His flunkies followed.
Thinal grinned and cocked a final snoot at his back. Rap frowned.
“Well!” Kadolan said, annoyed to find that her heart was beating faster than was seemly. “I thank you, Master Rap. Your powers are a welcome reinforcement in Arakkaran!”
The youth smiled faintly, but he was still keeping his true feelings masked.
“Perhaps,” she suggested, “we should now compare notes and make some plans?”
He nodded. “First I must escort Thinal down to the gates and see him safely on his way. It would not be fair to keep Gathmor in suspense any longer.”
“Gathmor?”
“Another friend. A good friend. A sailor. You saw him once.”
“I did?” The conversation was already slipping away from the path she had planned.
“In the magic casement. He was the third man present when Sagorn and I met the dragon.”
Gods! “The prophecy was fulfilled?”
“The first one … ” The faun frowned suddenly. Looking very uneasy, he added, “And now I suspect that makes the other two inevitable.”
A duel with the infamous Kalkor? Torture in the goblin lodge? Horror-struck, she said, “Surely not! Why?”
“Because obviously the casement was working correctly. Why did I not see that earlier?” He shook his head, puzzled. “Some things are very clear to me now, things I never knew before.”
“The words bring wisdom?” She took a shaky sip of coffee. “Then perhaps you can explain something that is puzzling me, Master Rap. My word of power never seemed to make much different to me, nor to my sister-in-law, when she was alive. I assumed that it had very little strength, as it were … that it had been diluted in the remote past by too many sharings, or that it was wearing out.
Yet it has produced extraordinary abilities in you. Surely you were not capable of all this yesterday?”
Again he shook his head, his gray eyes unreadable. After a moment he said, “I do know more about that! It … it isn’t easy to explain.”
“Oh, we have lots of time.”
“We don’t, not at the moment. But it isn’t that. I mean, I feel a strong urge not to talk about such things. The words are secretive by nature!” He glanced at Thinal’s ratty eyes. “This must be why nosy mundanes like Sagorn have so much trouble finding out!”
The thief nodded and smirked.
“I’ll try, though.” Rap took a deep breath. “There seem to be three things involved, ma’am. First, of course, is the mere number of words. One makes a genius, two an adept. Then mage and sorcerer. All are different. Rarely a genius will have occult power, as I did, but not often — and so on. The number of words is important in itself. Everyone knows that.”
“Like the number of wheels on a coach.”
“Yes! A wheelbarrow, or a chaise, or … ” He smiled his diffident little smile. “I don’t know anything with three wheels! Or a wagon — all different. But the number of words matters most. My farsight, for instance, is much stronger than it was, but mainly I have skills now that I never had before. Mage skills. And then the words themselves can be weakened by sharing. We knew that.”
“I’m not as good as I was,” Thinal muttered, looking resentful.
“You’re still the best!” Rap said quickly. He wiped his forehead, as if feeling a strain. “That sort of comparison is all right when you compare one person’s power before he tells a word, or after he gets more of the same word … but it doesn’t mean much when you compare one person with another. What’s more important then is … the third thing … I never realized … ” He paused.
“What third thing?” Thinal demanded.
“It’s a sort of native talent.” Rap stared unseeing for a moment, a young man wrestling with great problems. “When I was only an adept I could feel the ripples. Lith’rian didn’t like that!”
“Ripples?” Kadolan said, confused. Did he mean Warlock Lith’rian?
“It’s like a vibration. The world shimmers. I thought I was going to shake my own teeth out making that ladder. I expect I’ll develop a gentler touch, when I’ve had some practice. Hope so! I can’t tell within the palace, but I think I could sense sorcery a great way off now.”
“Sheik Elkarath is a mage, and he said he couldn’t. Not at all, he said.”
Rap nodded, then slumped back in his chair, breathing hard. “Then I’m better than him. It may be our words, but more likely, it’s this third thing — us, ourselves. I’m just more … responsive. That’s the way I see it.”
Some people had innate musical ability and could learn to sing, or play any instrument they chose. Others, like Kadolan herself, had a stone ear for music. So this nondescript stableboy had another sort of inborn ability, a gift for magic, something she did not. She felt mildly resentful about that. It explained Inos, though. Perhaps Inos had no gift at all, or very little, so her word of power was of no use to her. That seemed most unfair! And there were the tales of the legendary great warlocks of the past, like Thrane — who had left no notable successor, so far as she could recall.
She wondered why the servants were not coming to clear the table, and realized that the faun might be keeping them away.
Then he roused himself and glanced inquiringly at the imp, as if ready to leave.
“What about Inos?” Kadolan said quickly.
Rap leaned back and studied her unwinkingly. “What about her?”
“Her accident. The burns?”
He nodded glumly. “I was responsible for that, I suppose, in that I killed the sorceress. If I can find Inos, I shall try to repair the damage. The curse on the sultan must be a sorcery, though, and I can’t do anything about that.”
“And her marriage?”
“What about her marriage?” the faun asked coldly.
Suddenly concerned, Kadolan said, “It was all a terrible mistake!”
His face was so infuriatingly wooden!
Rap said, “I asked her if she had married of her own free will. She said she had. She was not lying, ma’am! I can detect lies; I could even then. It was her choice.”
“But … But … But she thought you were dead! She had seen your ghost, she thought!”
He shivered, very slightly. “And I saw her … But she knew I was alive when I asked the question.” A trace of pain showed, and vanished again. “Has Inos ever said she loved me?”
Probably her face was telling him no before she could open her mouth. “Well, she spoke often of your childhood. She was very upset by your death.”
“And she was very angry at me for interrupting her wedding.”
This was awful! “Of course Inos was upset! It was a disaster! She had not had time to think, to remember the God’s words, to work out the implications.”
He did not comment, just looked at her.
“Free will is a nebulous term, Master Rap! Under the circumstances, she had no real choice but to marry the sultan. It is often easier to lie to oneself than to admit unpleasant truths.”
“She did not lie to me, ma’am. I am certain of that.”
Horrors! This was not at all what Kadolan had expected!
“And she stayed silent when the sultan ordered me thrown in jail.”
“That was for your good!”
Thinal guffawed.
“I mean,” Kadolan said stiffly, “he is insanely jealous! Anything she said would have only made him angrier.”
Rap shrugged, slightly.
God of Love!
“And you? How do you feel about her?”
“With respect, your Highness, that is not relevant.”
Kade wrung her hands, searching for an argument, an excuse, an explanation.
“I beg you. Master Rap! I beg you to rescue my niece from an inappropriate and unwanted marriage!”
“She is a married woman!” Rap exclaimed, shocked. “Your Highness, you cannot mean that!”
“You must see — ”
“No I don’t! I won’t even consider it!” He set his jaw.
“You are being very difficult!”
“You are making improper suggestions.”
“But —”
“I won’t listen!”
“Stubbornness is not an attractive trait.”
“So Inos always told me.”
Thinal snickered. Doubtless he also was recalling what Sagorn had said about this mulish faun. Kadolan stopped drumming fingers on the table and composed herself. “I think you must ask her again … er … sir. About free will.”
Again he shrugged slightly, and again moved as if to rise.
“Now,” she said hastily, “Inosolan and the sultan have not long sailed. If we hurry down to the harbor — the three of us and your other friend, if you wish — then surely we can find a ship heading west? If money is a problem, I have some brooches and things I can sell. Then we can overtake them at the next port, or even chase them all the way to Qoble, if necessary.”
Rap shook his head.
No? “Then what do you plan to do?”
The big gray eyes studied her. “I plan to remain in this palace for some time. A week, at least, perhaps longer. With your permission, these quarters would be good, or I can find others. I need to complete my healing. I must also learn to control my powers — here, where I am shielded. Otherwise I shall just give myself away to some warlock or sorcerer and be enslaved. Also, my friends need time to rest, all six of them.”
Reluctantly she concluded that it was not an unreasonable request. She nodded. “You are most welcome here, and they also, if you can hide them.”
Thinal snorted. “I wouldn’t rest here. Pickings’re too good. Got my eye on a well-stocked little whorehouse down by the docks.”
Kadolan regarded him with distaste, but the technique that worked so well on
underlings at Kinvale and Krasnegar seemed to be ineffective on him. She turned her attention back to the mage. “And when you are ready, you will take me with you when you go after Inos?” She heard an unpleasant whine in her voice, but now she was wondering if he might just desert her, and the prospect was terrifying. The rest of her life in Arakkaran?
“I will not abandon you, ma’am. Not after what you did for me.”
How deeply was he prying into her thoughts? “I am very grateful for that promise, Master Rap.”
His eyes seemed to go out of focus, staring at the space above her left shoulder. “But … I do not go after Inos.”
“What? But —”
“Qoble is in South’s sector.”
“You fear Warlock Lith’rian?”
“Or he fears me.”
She did not ask what that cryptic remark meant. Thinal seemed as puzzled as she.
“I sail,” he said softly, as if not speaking to anyone. “I sail … but north. Yes, a big port on a big river.”
Ghostly fingernails scratched at her skin. The mage was using some sort of occult power she had not met before. Foresight? The imp seemed to have the same odd foreboding she did, for he drew back his lips in a snarl. But Ollion was another possible way to the capital.
“And then?” she whispered.
Beads of sweat showed on the faun’s forehead. “Then,” he whispered, “then … Hub, I think. It must be Hub. The palaces?”
All the world’s problems came to Hub eventually. She herself had often said that the Krasnegar question would be settled there. Perhaps it had been settled already — or perhaps that was yet to come. She began to feel a surge of hope. Hub!
“And there, Master Rap? What happens in Hub?”
For a moment there was no answer. The gray eyes widened …
Then Rap screamed and covered his face with his hands.
Best-laid scheme
But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,*
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o’mice an’ men,
Gang aft a-gley,**
An’ lae’e us naught but grief and pain,
A Man of His Word Page 125