"If I choose to attack Dorlyth's castle, I will notify you by blue flyer. Good day, gentlemen." Tohn held his head in his hands a few moments after breaking the link, then jerked around, half expecting to see someone standing behind him. There was no one there, and he sighed, wondering if his imagination was running away from him. He stumbled out of the room and down the dark stairs, finally making his way out into the courtyard. "You," he said to one of the young boys he found wrestling in the dirt, "go fetch the captain of my guards. Do it!" he added when the boy hesitated.
"But-he won't listen to me. Uncle Tohn," began the boy, whose name Tohn couldn't remember. There were so many, how could he? "Tell him I'm angry, lad," Tohn said. "He may not believe you, but he'll come just in case." The boy's chest swelled with pride at being the one selected, and he took off. "Lad!" Tohn stopped him. "Go to my falconer too, and tell him the same thing. Run now!" The boy shot away toward the main door of the inner keep, kicking dust up behind him with every barefoot stride. The other boys stood in a silent semicircle around Tohn, watching him, wondering what he would do or say next. Tohn noticed their dirty-faced stares, and stepped out of the way. "Excuse me. Sorry to break up the game." They continued to look at him, unsure of what he would have them do. Tohn thought for a minute, then grinned. "Anybody want to wrestle?" he asked.
When the captain of the guard arrived breathless in the courtyard, he found Tohn mod Neelis wrestling in the dust with the little boys.
Pelman uncurled from his fetal position, and took a long, deep breath. Then he looked up at Dorlyth, and held out a hand to him, palm up. The hand glowed again briefly, and Dorlyth experienced another weird sensation-as if moss were falling from his body.
He blinked twice, sighed, and muttered, "My boots are soaked." Pelman ignored his scolding tone. "So are mine. Shall we go change them?" The two retraced their steps through the stream, then stepped out onto dry land, their boots squishing in unison.
"Would it be nosy for me to ask what you were doing back there with your tail in the air?" Dorlyth rumbled.
"I was listening," Pelman replied.
"To the grass growing? To an army of ants?" "To a powerful conversation between our enemies." Dorlyth frowned. "How did you manage that?" "I had been told the merchants could communicate with one another without the aid of messenger birds. It's true. They can." "The powers?" "Yes, it is some magical device that traps and focuses the powers, though how it works I certainly don't know." "Yet you managed to listen in?" "I was only able to hear one side of the conversation. I couldn't tell if he spoke to only one man or two. Somehow he realized my presence and broke the contact." "He, who?" Dorlyth asked, ducking under a branch.
"Tohn mod Neelis," said Pelman, and Dorlyth nodded.
"And those he spoke to?" "Only Flayh for sure. Who else, if anyone, I couldn't tell." "Probably the elder of Ognadzu in Chaomonous." "Possibly," Pelman began, "and yet I doubt it. My guess is that Talith has arrested whoever holds that position now. I doubt he would carry a device this valuable into the dungeon with him." "Then who?" "I don't know," Pelman said as they reached the edge of the small wood and stepped into the meadow west of Dorlyth's castle. He slowed, looking up at the battlements of the keep and the guards who stood there, more interested in their private conversations than in the business of watching the horizon. "But I do know this. You and your house are in grave danger." Dorlyth wasn't the slightest bit surprised. "When you show up, trouble can't be far behind. Did he say when he would march?" "I don't believe Tohn has even made the decision to attack yet. Someone-Flayh, I'd wager-seemed to be pushing him to. Even so, I think it is time for me to take the girl and be gone." "You just got here!" Dorlyth argued.
"Nevertheless, it's time to go on. If Tohn does choose to come, he will not find me here. You can let him inspect your dungeon and your keep and send him on his way. That should give us a two-day head start, enough to reach the forest." "I take it you're going south?" "And I hope Tohn thinks the same thing," Pelman smiled. "We're riding north-to Lamath."
Chapter Four
"LAMATH!" Bronwynn exploded as they ate the evening meal. "What are we going to Lamath for? You plan to sell me to the King of Lamath yourself?" Her blue eyes snapped angrily. Rosha, seated across the table, found those eyes far more bewitching than his peas. She caught him watching her. "And what are you looking at?" she spat. His peas weren't so bad to look at after all, he decided, and focusing on his plate alone he began to shovel them in.
"We are going to Lamath because that's the safest place to go," Pelman explained, his patience wearing thin.
"How can you say that? They're the ones who were trying to capture me!" "Then they certainly won't be expecting you to come there, will they?" Dorlyth asked quietly, stuffing a chunk of meat into his mouth.
"But why can't I go back to my father?" she demanded of Pelman.
"Because it was someone in your father's castle who made a captive of you in the first place." "How do you know that? You can't prove it." She slammed her spoon down on the table and sat back in her chair, crossing her arms petulantly. She waited for Rosha to look up so she could say something nasty to him, but the young man had better sense than to do that. All she saw was the top of his head and the movement of his fork from plate to mouth and back again.
"I'm going to have to ask you to trust me in this," Pelman said gravely, trying a new tactic with the girl. "I've not betrayed you yet, have I?" Bronwynn wouldn't look at him. She took another bite of meat and chewed it without tasting. "All right," she grumbled, but her fury was still quite evident. She was tired. Tired of running away, tired of meeting new people, tired of trying to get Pelman to notice her the way she wanted him to. She was also tired of this simple food. She liked variety in her diet, and was used to delicacies from the kitchens of a King. This all tasted bland. And she resented, too, the way the savage youth across from her was stuffing it in. She pushed the plate away, and folded her arms again.
"Better eat," Pelman said in as kindly a way as possible.
"I'm tired of your telling me what to do! I am heir to the throne of Chaomonous and am fully capable of managing my own life!" She jumped up from her seat and stomped toward the door. There she hesitated and looked back. "If anyone wants me, I'll be with my falcon." Then she was gone.
Pelman gazed angrily after her, missing the snicker Dorlyth and his son exchanged across the table.
"You're going to take her to Lamath, are you?" Dorlyth teased.
"I'm tempted to carry her to Tohn and beg him to take her oft my hands." "She's still a girl, my friend. Keep reminding yourself. Do you really expect anything different from Talith's daughter?" Pelman said nothing, deciding he would enjoy his dinner regardless of the conversation. Dorlyth waited for a moment, then cleared his throat. "Rosha and I have talked this over, Pelman, and we've agreed. You're going to need help handling this lady." Pelman looked up at Dorlyth, suspicion written in his knitted eyebrows. "You said yourself the lad was ready. I'm sending Rosha with you." Pelman grimaced, then pleaded, "Already I'm burdened with a predatory Princess! Would you force a love-struck lad on me as well?" "Love-struck he may be," Dorlyth said, watching Rosha's face flush once again, "but you've watched him practice. He's a formidable swordsman, as you've said yourself." "But the two together-!" "-may help keep one another in line. Pelman, I'm sending the boy not for his own sake alone. I send him for you as well." "You think I may need a swordsman." "Yes. Oh, not in the Mar, certainly-a powershaper has no more need of a warrior than he does of a flint. But you are not always a powershaper, Pelman, and you travel to Lamath." "Where my actions are suspect?" Pelman asked, smiling grimly.
"Where your actions are confusing, to say the least. You've said yourself you have no way of knowing who you might be there or what you might do! I send my son with you only because I can't go myself." "You may find you need him here. Who can say what might happen next?" "I've made my choices, old friend. I wish him to travel with you. Rosha!" Dorlyth said, turning to his so
n.
"Yes, F-father?" "Go. Prepare yourself to ride with Pelman." "I'm al-r-ready r-ready," the boy grinned.
"Oh. Well then-go prepare some more." "W-why don't you j-just tell me to leave?" Rosha chuckled.
"All right, I will. Leave!" The boy hauled himself out of his chair, shook his bead good-naturedly, and left the room.
"On his way to the aviary I'll wager," Pelman muttered.
"Pelman," Dorlyth began with an intensity that demanded his friend's attention, "it's time for the boy. Take him with you." "But what if war should come to Dorlyth's castle-" "Especially if war comes to this keep do I want him with you!" "Oh," Pelman nodded.
"Teach him, Pelman. I've taught him everything I know-but that's not enough. He's more than I was. He'll be worth something-if he lives." "Dorlyth-I don't understand. I'm going to Lamath. I don't know what I will become there-I can't be trusted even with myself. And yet you want me to protect the boy?" "No!" Dorlyth thundered, frowning. "I want you to teach the boy. If I thought anyone could protect him, I'd keep him here. No one can. But it is possible to teach him. When he leans-I wager he'll protect not only himself, but you and the girl as well." "What is it you want me to teach-" Pelman began, but Dorlyth raised a hand to stop him.
"Let him travel with you, Pelman. That's all the teaching I ask you to give." Dorlyth jumped to his feet. "If you're leaving early we'd best get to business. I believe you promised me a game before you left?" Pelman stood slowly and looked around the hall. It was a relaxed group of guards and freemen who conversed in the warmth of their Lord's hospitality. He longed for the freedom to linger. Well, he would enjoy the evening, at least. "If you're so anxious to be beaten again, let's get to it." Once again the council chamber of the King of Chaomonous was filled with the coughing and shuffling of a crowd of advisors. Few were ever asked for advice- none dared to volunteer any. But the King was no less a player than Pelman, and he enjoyed his sizable captive audience. It meant that Talith kept few secrets, but the King seemed to accept that as a part of the natural order. Of course, others knew everything he said and did. He was the King; they were supposed to know. It rarely crossed his mind that this lack of secrecy could prove dangerous to him. Yet perhaps Talith was not as foolish as some believed him, for he realized his enemies would always be able to ferret out his secrets, whatever he did. Why shouldn't his loyal advisors know them as well? Kherda, exchequer of the royal treasury, nervously watched as Talith paced the dais. Perhaps the King could afford to share his secrets, but Kherda could not. To be caught in conspiracy with the King's mistress would cost him his head. If the King should discover he had aided in the kidnap of Bronwynn-Kherda hated to imagine the torments Talith might invent for him. And Kherda genuinely expected to be discovered any day. He could not escape the conviction that Ligne was just using him, and that soon she would discard him as being of no further value to her. Yet each time he was with the woman he found himself agreeing to yet another ridiculously dangerous assignment, simply to win a smile from those lips. And if Kherda feared her turning on him, he feared more the result of failing her. At times like this Kherda wished he had just stayed in his vaults with the money.
He clenched his notes with both hands, trying to draw some security from them. They had been prepared long in advance-notes regarding the expenses involved in mobilizing a mighty nation for war. His figures told how many warriors could be drawn from each province within the nation, and how many could be impressed into service from the conquered lands to the south. They told what available ships of the merchant fleets could be quickly transformed into troop carriers. They listed foodstuffs available to feed an army, and the arms on hand to equip it for battle. Kherda had even taken the liberty of suggesting a possible strategy for invading Lamath, though he hadn't a hope that the King would really consider it. Kherda had taken great pains to plan an invasion that would insure the maximum loss of Chaon men and equipment.
For what was really of most importance to Kherda was not this set of notes he clutched so tightly, but that other set of notes, hidden safely within the King's own treasure house, that plotted the overthrow of Talith's government. While the King fought a wasteful war with Lamath, a small army organized by Kherda under Ligne's prodding would march into Chaomonous and assume control. Ligne would open the palace to this conquering troop, and with little or no bloodshed at all Kherda would rule the mightiest nation in the world! Gradually then he would begin to shut off the supplies flowing north. By the time Talith realized the trick, his army would be so overextended and undersupplied he would never be able to recover. Kherda expected him to lay siege to the city, but by that time the capital would be so well stocked and so well defended Talith would never recapture it. Then, of course, there was Ligne's assassin. When the time came, Talith would be cut down.
Kherda didn't know himself who this assassin was- Ligne had chosen not to share that information with him. As a result, he feared everyone. Should Ligne choose to get rid of him, now that the plan was so neatly laid, the knife could come at him from any direction.
Kherda saw Joss watching him from across the room. Since the night of Bronwynn's kidnap the Chief of Security had been eyeing him that way. He struggled to wipe the anxious look from his face, and slowly placed his notes on the lectern in front of him. Did Joss read thoughts? He decided to clear his mind completely of plans for the coup. Perhaps he would survive all this.
"Then you've learned nothing!" the King was screaming. This was directed to his Lord. of the Dungeon, a large, slow-moving fellow who hid a razor-keen mind under a facade of oafishness.
"No, Sire, not a thing. I'm sorry. Sire." "Sorry!" the King exploded, and the heavy-built warden took a step back and held up his hands.
"They all claim they knew nothing of the kidnap until after it occurred. Said they'd been kept completely in the dark by other members of their family. Isn't that what they told you. Joss?" He turned his head toward the General, directing the King's eyes there as well. It pained Joss to see how successfully the warder had shifted the responsibility.
"Well, Joss?" the King snapped.
"That's what each has said. And I begin to believe them." "What?" "They all hold to their story with great integrity, even in the face of torture. I must believe they are telling the truth, for some would gladly have confessed, had they known anything to tell. None has revealed any knowledge whatsoever of the events surrounding the kidnap." "It's that family pride, that clan unity!" the King raged, pacing the dais.
"Perhaps-but I doubt it," Joss said firmly. The King rewarded him with a scathing stare, but Joss went on. "They claim to have been betrayed by their elder in Lamath. It seems there is some factionalism even in the trading houses." "If that were so, who took my daughter?" Before Joss could reply, the King answered himself with a flourish of his hand. "I know! I know what you'll say. That somewhere in this assembly of advisors there lurks a traitor." Joss sighed quietly as Talith gestured over the heads of the rows of counselors. The King pointed one out. "Does that look like the face of a turncoat?" The man who owned the face in question sought to look as decent and innocent as possible. "Does that?" Talith pointed to another. "Does this?" The King had gripped Kherda's chin and now squeezed his cheeks, and Kherda felt very faint. Joss half smiled at Kherda's discomfort, but remained attentive to the King. "These are my people, Joss," the King said grandly, loosing Kherda, who promptly melted over the lectern as Talith turned away. "I trust them. They are privy to every decision I make." Suddenly Talith's expression turned black. "So don't even imply conspiracy, unless you have specific accusations to make!" Joss nodded curtly and replied, "I have none at this time, my Lord. I will continue to seek the information you desire." "Do that. And increase your surveillance along our borders with Lamath. I want to know their army better than their generals do!" "You're planning war?" Kherda asked quietly. "I'm always planning war, you stupid banker! I want to see Jagd!" "He waits outside-" Kherda began.
"I know he waits outside," the King
snapped. "I sent for him myself! Do you think I don't know what's going on in my own palace?" Kherda turned very pale.
"Jagd!" The doors flew open, and the guard began, "Jagd of Uda, to see-" "I know all that! Let him in!" The guard's spear clattered to the floor, and he scrambled to pick it up while Jagd brushed past him. "There you are, my friend." The King smiled, and he seated himself on the throne that crowned the platform. "Sit here, and tell me the news." Jagd sat in the chair to the King's right, and began to speak quietly to him. Kherda leaned forward to hear. "My Lord, the news is serious." "Bronwynn?" the King yelped anxiously. "No, my Lord," Jagd said quickly. "I know nothing at all of that situation. I have a caravan passing Dragonsgate tomorrow carrying messages of inquiry to my colleagues there. Of course we have exchanged messenger birds, but it is difficult to tie a large document to the leg of a little blue flyer. All I know is that Pezi's column arrived safely at Ognadzu holdings in Lamath, and that he immediately left for the capital. I assume the girl was with him." Jagd watched the King's face for Talith's reaction. It was slight, but significant. There was a clenching of the jaw, and Talith's right hand formed a fist. Jagd went on. "The troubling news is this. My fellows have observed great troop movements in Lamath. There are growing concentrations of warriors along Lamath's southern border." Joss looked sharply at the wrinkled little merchant, while Talith looked just as sharply at Joss.
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