[Lyra 03] - Shadow Magic

by Patricia C. Wrede - (ebook by Undead)

  “The Shadow-born are the true danger,” said another lord.

  “Yes, and the sooner we strike the easier they will be to deal with,” said the red-clad lady. “Or would you wait until their power reaches its full strength?”

  “There is strength in numbers as well as time,”

  another lady said pointedly. “When they reach Brenn, the Shadow-born will be together and able to support one another. If we wait until Lithra has conquered Alkyra, the Shadow-born will be spread out, and we can deal with them one at a time.”

  Har shifted angrily in his seat, and leaned over toward Alethia. “They talk as if nothing mattered but their own convenience!” he whispered.

  “Hush!” Alethia said. Medilaw was rising, and she wanted to hear what he said.

  “My lords and ladies,” Medilaw began, bowing. “In so grave a matter, let us take time to consider. The Dark Men cannot cross the Kathkari; there is no need for us to hurry. We have sat through wars among the humans before; what need to leave our land now?”

  “The Shadow-born cannot cross the Kathkari, but their army can,” a Shee halfway down one side of the hall said loudly.

  Medilaw shrugged. “An army of humans. How should we fear them?”

  “Swords do not care whether the hand that wields them is Shee or human,” one of the other Lord Advisors said.

  “True indeed, my lord Herre,” Medilaw said. “But if you fear the humans so greatly, let us use the Talisman of Noron’ri to seal our borders against them.” He waved a negligent hand at the table where the Talisman lay, and some trick of light made the iron glint ominously.

  “Is it wise to keep a thing of such power that has been tainted by the Shadow-born?” one of the other lords asked.

  Medilaw looked annoyed. “It would be folly to destroy what we no longer possess the knowledge ,to make,” he said. “Besides, it is no danger to us. So long as we keep it in Eveleth, the Shadow-born cannot reach it.”

  “May not the Shadow-born have others?” said a Shee in yellow. “Worse, what if they discover the lost Gifts while we sit waiting? I do not like this plan of stopping and considering; wisdom sometimes must make haste.”

  “I do not seek to keep us from action,” Medilaw said. “Only to prevent us from acting too quickly and making a grave mistake. You need not worry about the Talismans; the Lithmern can have no more of them, or the Veldatha would have detected them. Is this not so?” He turned toward Illeana, who nodded reluctantly.

  “As for the Gifts,” Medilaw went on, “they were lost two hundred years ago, by the same humans who now beg our aid.”

  “You forget, Medilaw, that we now have ties of blood in Brenn,” said a Shee robed in blue, looking significantly at Har and Alethia. “Shall we abandon our own?”

  “One who willfully abandoned her people may not expect aid from them in return,” Medilaw replied. “Yet you are right; they have some claim on us despite their human blood. We should offer them sanctuary among us until this matter is resolved.”

  “What makes you think we want your sanctuary?” an angry voice interrupted.

  All along the hall, heads swiveled away from Medilaw toward the far end. Alethia was on her feet, eyes blazing. “We didn’t come to ask for sanctuary. We will not beg for help that is not offered freely. Keep your magic!”

  There were murmurs of approval, and Medilaw went pale with anger. He was seldom challenged, and he had not doubted his ability to sway the Council. Defiance from this slip of a half-breed girl was unthinkable. “You humans have no chance against the Shadow-born!” he cried. With some difficulty, he controlled his anger enough to shrug and say coldly, “Still, if you refuse our assistance, there is no more to be said.”

  “Perhaps we will surprise you,” Alethia retorted. “Courage is no bad weapon against spells, or so I have learned.”

  “Even if you commanded the full power of the Talisman of Noron’ri and the Gifts themselves, a half-Shee like you could never hope to save your city!” Medilaw shouted.

  “I suppose you know more about it than I,” Alethia said sweetly. “You have no doubt studied such things; I have only managed to escape from a Shadow-born puppet wielding a Talisman, and then kill him later.”

  Someone chuckled. Medilaw glared about the hall, white-faced and trembling. Then he snatched up the Talisman of Noron’ri from the table in front of him. “You shall see what I know!” he cried, and raised it aloft in both hands.

  The gesture was a vivid reminder of the Lithmern Shadow-captain, and Alethia stepped backward involuntarily. Maurin leapt to his feet and threw himself in front of her. Medilaw’s eyes never left Alethia. His lips parted in a grimace that might have been intended as a smile, and he spoke a single word.

  A muddy little cloud began to form above Medilaw’s head as the Shee lords stared in frozen disbelief. Medilaw’s harsh grin widened, and he raised the Talisman higher and pointed at Alethia.

  The muddy cloud thickened and began to move forward.

  Suddenly, Medilaw was spun around. Powerful hands wrenched the Talisman from his grasp, and the small, dark cloud shuddered and evaporated. Medilaw howled, and in blind and unthinking rage attacked the purple-clad figure that had thwarted him. It was quickly evident that the other Lord Advisor was both younger and faster than the former High Minister; he had no trouble holding the enraged man for the brief time it took the palace guards to close on the table. Medilaw quickly vanished in a wave of black and silver; a moment later, he was led away, cursing hoarsely.

  In the shaken silence that followed, Iniscara spoke for the first time. “My thanks to you, Lord Advisor Herre,” she said quietly. “You will not find me ungrateful.”

  Lord Herre bowed and seated himself at the Lord Advisors” table once more. The silence continued; the Shee lords and ladies stared at the Talisman. Then Iniscara rose to her feet, and her voice rang clearly in the still room.

  “Do any of you doubt the meaning of what has just happened?” she said. Her eyes raked the hall; no one spoke.

  “Then there is no longer any question what we must do,” Iniscara said. “If the Shadow-born can reach even here, to touch a Lord Advisor in Council, we cannot wait to combat them at a time of our own choosing.”

  Heads nodded in agreement, but the Queen ignored them. She turned first to Murn and then to Merissallan. “I hope your people will join us, but if not we will not condemn you. For this will be a difficult task, and there are those here who would prevent us, as you have seen.”

  “I may not speak for the Wyrds,” Murn said. “Yet I shall tell what I have seen and learned. I do not think they will refuse.”

  “The Neira will do what we can,” the sea-man said. “I can speak for all of us, but I do not know how much use we may be; Brenn is a long way from the ocean.”

  Iniscara nodded in satisfaction. She turned back to the Shee councilors. “Three thousand horsemen will leave Eveleth at once for Brenn, with Lord Advisor Herre to command them,” the Queen said. “The Talisman of Noron’ri will be destroyed immediately, lest the Shadow-born use it to work more mischief among us. You have seen and heard it.”

  The Shee lords and ladies bowed in acknowledgement of the Queen’s commands. There was a rustle of movement; the Queen raised a hand and it checked at once.

  “Lest any misunderstand me, I will do one thing more before you leave,” the Queen said. “Nember!”

  Imperiously, she stretched out a hand. Slowly, the High Minister rose and handed her the silver staff of his office.

  Holding the staff in both hands, Iniscara raised her arms high. “I am Iniscara, Queen of Eveleth, and of Sheleran, and of the Shee! As those before me have done, so will I do! You are witnesses to this.”

  The Shee rose and responded with one voice, “We are witness, and will uphold the oath.”

  A wind swept through the hall, blowing the Queen’s robes out behind her. It grew stronger and stronger as Iniscara lowered her arms; then, as the end of the staff touched the floor, it died a
bruptly. “You may go,” she said.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  There was a rustle of movement as the Shee lords and ladies rose and bowed, then turned to file slowly from the Council hall. Beside Alethia, Jordet sighed and shook his head. “This is indeed a day of wonders,” he said.

  “What do you mean?” Har asked.

  “You saw Iniscara take up the staff and you have to ask? It has been long since a monarch of the Shee has claimed the staff and the full power of royalty,” Jordet replied. “But come; if you intend to go with our troops, you must hurry.”

  “That many men can’t possibly prepare to leave in only a few hours,” Har objected. “They can’t all be in Eveleth now. It will take time just to collect them.”

  “Don’t be so sure,” Jordet grinned. “I was up most of the night helping them get ready. Iniscara ordered the guard to alert a week or more ago, when word first arrived of Alethia’s kidnapping; she’s had them preparing to leave ever since news of the siege arrived.”

  Har’s face lightened. “Then the Queen intended to send help to Brenn all along!”

  “Perhaps,” Jordet said cautiously. “But I cannot say what might have happened if Medilaw had not lost his head. However, the troops will be leaving almost at once. Are you coming?”

  “Of course we’re coming!” Har said.

  “Then stop arguing, and let’s go,” said Alethia. “At the speed you’re moving, Brenn may fall before we get there!”

  Har looked at his sister in alarm. “Allie, there’s going to be a battle when we get to Brenn! You can’t come with us!”

  “Why not?” Alethia said. “I’m almost as good an archer as you are, and it’s my home, too. What else should I do?”

  “You will stay with us until matters at Brenn are… settled,” said a voice from behind Har. Har jumped and turned to find Iniscara looking at him with an unreadable expression on her face. Har gave a relieved sigh.

  “If you are willing to let Alethia stay safe here, I will be very grateful, and my father also, when he learns of it,” he said.

  “Stay here?” said Alethia indignantly. “But…” She stopped short, realizing suddenly that the offer was a shrewd political move as well as a kindness on Iniscara’s part, for the Shee council still did not like or trust humans. If a noble’s daughter were to stay behind as a sort of hostage, Iniscara would have less trouble enacting her plan to aid the human city. Alethia was a child of one of the Noble Houses of Alkyra; she knew better than to risk offending such powerful and touchy allies. Her head turned involuntarily toward Iniscara, and their eyes met.

  “You will not be disappointed in your stay here,” Iniscara said softly. “And I think you will have better things to do than fighting Lithmern, for a time at least.”

  Alethia shivered a little as the Queen turned away from her, toward Har. “You will go with the army to Brenn; Herre will need someone with him who can advise him about the land around the city. Your other friends shall accompany you. The Bard may stay with us if he so chooses—it is long since one of his kind passed this way.”

  The rest of the arrangements were quickly made. To no one’s surprise Tamsin, after much thought, decided to remain in Eveleth with Alethia; the opportunity to learn more of the Shee was more than the minstrel could pass by.

  Despite Har’s doubts, the departing troops were ready to leave by midday. Worrel and Rarn had already left for Glen Wilding, accompanying Murn, who promised to ask her father to send some of the Wyrd archers to join the Shee on their way to Brenn. Alethia was surprised to find that Jordet would be accompanying them to act as liaison with the Wyrds. She was both pleased and saddened by the news; she was beginning to suspect that the two weeks in Eveleth might be rather lonely, and Jordet was almost the only Shee she had met who would speak to the humans without the mask of haughty indifference.

  Tamsin and Alethia accompanied Jordet, Har and Maurin to the city gates, talking as they rode. The conversation was all too short, for the two humans had been positioned toward the head of the column of Shee cavalry, and they had to depart almost immediately. Maurin could not resist looking back as he and Har rode out of the city; he managed to catch one more glimpse of Alethia, framed in the open gateway, and then she vanished behind the rows of black-clad riders.

  The Shee troops made good time through the mountains. Maurin was impressed by the horsemanship the Shee exhibited, as well as by their mounts. The riders made camp only when the growing darkness made further travel too dangerous, and they set off again at first light the following morning. The horses the Shee rode were trained for speed, even though the footing was often treacherous. The pace was hard, but by evening of the second day the column was out of the mountains and traveling through the Wyrwood. The going became easier, for though there were trees to wind their way through, there were no steep climbs to tire the horses, nor piles of shattered rock to slide underfoot.

  On the third day, they met the Wyrds. Grathwol himself led the archers, and Murn was also among them. Though it was barely mid-morning, the two columns halted to enable the commanders to confer. Almost as soon as they dismounted, Maurin and Har were summoned to Commander Herre.

  They found him seated in a hastily-erected tent with Grathwol, Murn, and several Shee. A large map was spread out in front of them, and they were studying it closely.

  “—outnumber us by nearly two to one, even with the Wyrds to join us,” a Shee was saying worriedly. “I don’t care if they’re humans; those aren’t odds that I like.”

  Maurin saw Har frown. “Don’t forget about the troops inside Brenn,” he said.

  The occupants of the tent looked up, and Herre motioned Har and Maurin to be seated. “More humans,” muttered a Shee wearing a general’s uniform, but he did not speak loudly. Maurin glanced quickly at Har, but he did not seem to have heard the remark, and Maurin relaxed.

  “Some of the Lithmern troops must be on the south side of the river,” another Shee said. “If we could keep them trapped there, we would have a better chance.”

  “Of the ten thousand Lithmern, my scouts tell me that about a fifth are on the south side of the river,” Grathwol said. “The rest are camped here, just west of Brenn and south of Brandon forest.” He smiled, showing pointed teeth. “It would seem the Lithmern prefer to avoid both the Wyrwood and Brandon forest. Perhaps they do not like trees.”

  Herre smiled and turned toward Har. “Are there any fords near Brenn?” he asked.

  “No,” Har said. “We dredge regularly to keep the river deep; the bridges inside the city are the only ways to cross within half a day’s ride.”

  “Then the Lithmern are depending on boats to keep their troops in contact,” Herre said thoughtfully. “Grathwol, could your scouts get close enough to sink them before we attack?”

  Grathwol snorted. “The Lithmern sentries would not notice an army at midday, much less a few Wyrds by night,” he said. “Unless they have filled the river, we can sink them.”

  “Then we will not be quite so badly outnumbered,” said the Shee who had spoken first. “Still—”

  “How many Wyrds could hide in Brandon forest?” Maurin said, looking up from the map.

  Grathwol snorted again. “From those sentries? All Glen Wilding, and Glen Hycroft and Glen Ravensrock besides!”

  Herre looked thoughtfully at Maurin. “I think I see what you are getting at,” he said. “If we charge at the camp from the east, it will push the Lithmern back against Brandon forest, and the Wyrds can pick them off with their bows. We won’t get all of them, though; see, here. There will still be nearly a quarter of the Lithmern behind us, even if we succeed in cutting off the men on the other side of the river. I don’t like it.”

  “Don’t forget about the troops in Brenn,” Har put in. “They won’t be sitting idle during all this!”

  “I don’t know what the humans in the city are likely to do, and I am reluctant to count on their actions,” Herre said, even more thoughtfully than before. “But I sh
all speak to the Veldatha who accompanied us; perhaps one of them can bespeak the Lady Isme.”

  Har looked at Herre blankly.

  “The Lady Isme is a Shee,” Herre said, speaking patiently as though to a child; “and we shall need wizards as well as warriors to win this battle. She can warn those inside the city to be ready for us.”

  “What of the Lithmern sorcerers?” said another of the Shee.

  “Rialla assures me that the Veldatha can block any attempts to summon the Shadow-born,” Herre said. “Unfortunately, they will have little energy to spare. We can look for no other help from them.”

  “That is unfortunate, but I expected no more,” Grathwol replied gravely. “I think we are agreed, then?”

  The others nodded. The meeting ended, and the combined column of Wyrds and Shee was soon moving toward Brenn once more.

  As the last Shee rode out of the city gates., Alethia sighed. She looked at Tamsin, and without speaking they turned their horses and began riding back toward the palace. Alethia still more than half wished she could have accompanied the army, but before her mood could turn to depression, she saw the guard called Ferrin come running toward them. “You’ll have to hurry,” the young guard called between pants as soon as he was close enough to be heard. “The Queen wants to see you right away.”

  Alethia nodded, wondering what Iniscara could want of them now. She was even more curious when they reached the palace and found Illeana waiting in the room to which Ferrin lead them. The Shee woman looked disdainfully at Tamsin, but she made no overt objection to his presence. A moment later, the Queen herself appeared, accompanied by another Shee woman, pale and stern, whom Alethia did not recognize.

  Iniscara smiled speculatively at Alethia. “I have a proposal to make to you, my dear,” she said as soon as the bowing and curtsying ended. She paused. “Would you like to learn magic?”

  Tamsin’s jaw dropped. Alethia sat staring for a moment, then blinked. “Why should you wish to teach me?” she asked.