Mordant's Need

by Stephen R. Donaldson

  Prince Kragen was saying, ‘Continue, my lady Terisa.’ Despite his self-control, he looked eager. ‘I am sure that we will be able to achieve an equitable exchange when you are done.’

  Grinning, Terisa wagged her finger at him. ‘Oh, no, my lord Prince.’ She actually wagged her finger at him. ‘Be fair. That isn’t the way the game is played.’

  Geraden stood facing Elega; his voice was pitched to cover Terisa’s. His tone didn’t hold any authority, however. It didn’t even convey confidence. Instead, it hinted at hysteria.

  ‘The fact is,’ he said, ‘we don’t have any messages from the Queen. She didn’t have time to give us any. She was planning to come here herself. She wanted to stand beside the King. But she didn’t get the chance.’

  In spite of the pressure to speak, he faltered. Elega’s gaze was fastened to his face; her whole body concentrated toward him.

  ‘Go on,’ she said with her throat clenched.

  ‘Continue, my lady!’ Prince Kragen snapped, apparently trying to startle words out of Terisa.

  Just in time, Terisa put her finger to her lips and made a shushing noise.

  ‘Elega, I’m sorry,’ Geraden said miserably. ‘While we were there, the Queen was taken. Ambushed. Imagery and soldiers. She was abducted.’

  Slowly, as if she could barely lift them, Elega raised her hands to her mouth.

  ‘We know who the Imager was.’

  Her breath came hard, straining between her teeth.

  ‘The soldiers were Alends.’

  Prince Kragen was so startled that he sprang to his feet and barked, ‘You lie!’ before he could stop himself.

  Terisa studied the three of them. ‘No.’ It was wonderful how clearly she could speak, despite the weight in her head. ‘He’s not lying. We were there. That’s why we want to go into Orison. That’s what we want to tell King Joyse. Your men kidnapped Queen Madin.’

  From Terisa’s perspective, the lady Elega went up like a candleflame. Without moving, she seemed to burst into passion; it swept through her toward the ceiling, hot enough to scorch. Confronting the Prince as if Terisa and Geraden were forgotten, she whispered like a cry, ‘What have you done?’

  Kragen’s face twisted; his teeth showed under his moustache. ‘They lie. I tell you, it is a lie.’

  She didn’t flicker. ‘Geraden has never told a lie in his life – never one of such hurt. What have you done?’

  ‘Nothing!’ he shouted at her, trying to drive back her fury. ‘Geraden does not lie? Perhaps not. I do not lift my hand against lonely and harmless women! Never in my life.’

  Perhaps she didn’t hear him: perhaps she couldn’t. Her hands clenched into fists against her cheeks; blazing, she lifted her voice into a wail.

  ‘Where is my mother? What have you done to my mother?’

  In that outcry, she burned up too brightly to sustain herself. She was too vulnerable: her strength failed, and she fainted. Delicately, like heated wax, she slumped toward the floor.

  Geraden caught her.

  Holding her in his arms, he faced the Prince. Now he was the one breathing hard, panting for air as if he had caught fire from her. Her distress made him savage, heedless. Prince Kragen came to him in dismay, tried to take her from him. He wrenched her away as if he didn’t care that the Prince could have him killed.

  ‘There are only two possibilities. My lord Prince. Isn’t that right? Either you did it. So you’re going to tie me and Terisa up and start torturing us. Or it was done to you. So you’re going to let us go see the King.

  ‘Which is it?’

  But Prince Kragen wasn’t listening. ‘Release her, Geraden,’ he murmured, almost pleading. ‘She is only your friend. I love her. If all of Cadwal and the wide sea itself come between us, I will wed her before I die. Give her to me.’

  He held out his arms.

  Terisa saw Geraden burning the way Elega had burned; she saw him on the verge of hurling something he wouldn’t be able to retract into the teeth of the Prince’s regret. Fortunately, she was already on her feet, pulled erect by his fury. Otherwise she couldn’t have reached him in time. She put a hand on his shoulder, then slipped her arm around his neck and hugged him.

  ‘I believe him,’ she said softly. ‘You called him an honorable enemy. He wouldn’t do something like that. And if he did, he would have done it long ago.

  ‘He’s going to let us into Orison.’

  She felt Geraden’s muscles pull tight, as rigid as Elega’s cry.

  After a moment, she felt them relax.

  Gently, he shifted Elega into Prince Kragen’s embrace.

  At once, Kragen sank to the floor, holding Elega close while he checked her pulse and respiration, made her comfortable. He bowed his head over her, ignoring Terisa and Geraden.

  They stood near him and waited. The sides of the foretent were lined with servants and soldiers, summoned by the lady Elega’s wail. They had no instructions, however, and didn’t move.

  Then Elega’s eyes fluttered open. When she saw where she was, a slight smile curved her mouth. Gently, as if she didn’t want to hurt him, she put up her hand to touch the Prince’s cheek.

  He let out a stiff sigh and raised his head.

  His voice had to struggle out of his chest. ‘Why am I going to let you into Orison?’

  Geraden cleared his throat. Constricted with emotion, he rasped, ‘Because if the men who took Queen Madin were Cadwals or mercenaries disguised as Alends, the attack is aimed at you as well as King Joyse. Part of the point is to keep anybody from trusting you. And part of it is to keep you and King Joyse from trusting each other, from forming an alliance.

  ‘You’re being manipulated. By High King Festten. And the traitors. And the only way you can save yourself is to let us talk to the King.’

  ‘And if I do not let them into Orison’ – the Prince was speaking to Elega – ‘you will believe that I am responsible for your mother’s abduction.’

  Elega didn’t nod or shake her head. The small smile stayed on her lips; her hand cupped Kragen’s cheek. ‘You want an alliance, my lord. You have always wanted an alliance, not this misconceived and aimless siege. Perhaps that is possible now. Perhaps it would be worth the attempt.’

  Prince Kragen made a harsh noise like an attempted laugh. ‘The last time I proposed that, he humiliated me. He went to considerable lengths to humiliate me.’

  ‘He didn’t—’ Terisa began. Her legs were unsteady, however, and she had to support herself on Geraden’s shoulder. For a moment, she forgot what she was saying.

  Then she remembered.

  ‘He was testing you. He thought you were his enemy. He didn’t know who the traitor was. He didn’t know what alliances had already been made. Now we can tell him.’

  Prince Kragen’s head turned; his eyes held an obsidian smolder which would have frightened her if she had been able to concentrate on it. Softly, he commanded, ‘Tell me.’

  Geraden took a deep breath, straightened his back. ‘I’ll tell you this much, my lord. The traitor is Master Eremis. We can guess how he does the translations that let him attack anywhere in Mordant – that let him and Gart and Master Gilbur move through flat glass without losing their minds. And we know where his power is located, where he keeps his mirrors.’

  With an intensity Terisa didn’t quite understand, Prince Kragen demanded, ‘Where is that?’

  When Geraden had described Esmerel and its location, the Prince lowered his head.

  ‘My lady,’ he asked Elega, ‘can you stand?’

  She nodded.

  A flick of his fingers brought two servants running forward. They eased the lady out of his arms, assisted her to her feet. At once, Prince Kragen surged upright. He kept his face averted, so that Terisa and Geraden couldn’t see his expression. Under his breath, he murmured, ‘I must speak to the Alend Monarch.’

  Without offering an explanation or waiting for an answer, he entered the darkness of the main tent and closed the flap behind him.
>
  While Geraden and Elega studied each other with uncertainty and some embarrassment, Terisa went to refill her goblet.

  She was stretched out on the floor, sound asleep and snoring gently, when the Alend Contender returned.

  In a subtle way, his manner had changed. He looked less angry, less sick to the teeth with frustration; the prospect of immediate battle or danger came as a palpable relief to him. Despite his efforts to sound neutral, his voice was several shades lighter as he announced, ‘The Alend Monarch has decided that you will be allowed to enter Orison tomorrow morning.’

  When he said that, Elega’s face shone at him.

  Geraden let the air out of his tight chest with a burst like a laugh. ‘Thanks, my lord Prince. I’m glad we were right about you. And I’m glad you don’t hold a grudge against me for stopping Nyle.’ He glanced affectionately at Terisa. ‘She’ll be glad, too – when she wakes up.’

  The Prince nodded brusquely and continued, ‘I will accompany you, both to demonstrate my good faith and to pursue the Alend Monarch’s desire for an alliance.’

  ‘Good idea,’ Geraden remarked.

  ‘The lady Elega will remain here to ensure that King Joyse does not abuse my good faith.’

  Elega dropped her eyes, but didn’t try to argue.

  ‘In the meantime,’ Prince Kragen concluded, commanding the attention of his soldiers with a gesture, ‘it might be advisable to discontinue our assault on the gates.’ He looked at one of his men. ‘Give the order.’

  The man saluted and left. The rest of the servants and soldiers also filed out of the foretent.

  To his own surprise, Geraden found that he felt suddenly giddy, in the mood for jokes and foolishness. ‘With your permission, my lord,’ he said, ‘I’ll have some more of that strong wine. Then, if you’re interested in the trade Terisa mentioned, I’ll tell you a story that will curl your hair.’

  Grinning like a predator, the Prince refilled Geraden’s goblet himself.

  THIRTY-NINE

  THE FINAL PIECE OF BAIT

  By midnight, Prince Kragen and the lady Elega knew most of Geraden’s secrets.

  The Alend Contender was an honorable man, however, and he kept his word.

  While Terisa and Geraden slept the heavy sleep of too much wine, servants carried them to another tent, and put them to bed. At dawn more servants awakened them, offered them baths and food and clean clothes. According to the servants, Prince Kragen wished his guests to take full advantage of his hospitality. When they were entirely ready, he would approach the castle with them.

  Terisa felt loggy with sleep, thick-headed with the wine’s aftereffects. She wanted a bath so badly that she could hardly contain herself.

  She was also considerably embarrassed.

  When she realized that she couldn’t quite meet Geraden’s eyes, she asked awkwardly, ‘Are you still speaking to me?’

  ‘Of course.’ There was a watchful air behind his smile, but no discernible irritation. ‘If you want me to stop speaking to you, you’re going to have to do something worse than that.’

  At least he didn’t pretend he didn’t know what she was talking about. She covered her face with her hands. ‘Did I make a complete idiot out of myself?’

  He chuckled easily. ‘That’s the amazing part. You scared me, all right. I thought you were going to get us in terrible trouble. But everything you did turned out fine. Even drinking as much as you did may have helped. It made you believable. I don’t think I could have handled either Elega or the Prince without you.’

  She pulled down her hands. Deliberately, she glared at him. ‘Stop being so nice to me. I was irresponsible. You ought to be furious.’

  Geraden gaped like a clown. ‘You’re right. I’m sorry. Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I’m so ashamed.’

  She made a grim but halfhearted effort to kick his shins.

  Laughing, he caught hold of her, held her, hugged her. After a while, a strange desire to weep came over her, and she found herself clinging to him hard. Fortunately, the desire only lasted a moment. As soon as it faded, she felt better.

  She had to let go of him to wipe her nose. ‘Thanks,’ she said softly. ‘Someday I’ll do something nice for you.’

  It surprised her to see that he was leering. ‘If we had time, I’d get you to do it right now.’

  That brought a smile out of her. ‘No, you wouldn’t.’ She was definitely feeling better. ‘I stink like a pig. I think I’ve got cockroaches living in my hair.’

  He stuck out his tongue in mock-nausea.

  She went to take a bath.

  When they were clean, and dressed in the new clothes Prince Kragen had provided for them – comfortable traveling clothes sewn of leather as supple as kidskin – they ate breakfast. The impression that they were keeping the Alend Contender waiting nagged at the back of Terisa’s mind; nevertheless she let him wait so that she would have a last chance to talk to Geraden. She had to prepare herself for Orison.

  ‘We’re aren’t likely to get much of a welcome, you know,’ she said between bites of honeyed bread and souffléd eggs – an unexpectedly rich sample of the Alend Monarch’s hospitality. ‘I tried to make the Castellan think I might be innocent, but Master Gilbur did a pretty good job of wiping that out.’ She didn’t mention Artagel. ‘Everybody there has spent the whole time thinking you killed Nyle and I’m in league with the arch-Imager.’

  Geraden nodded. ‘It won’t be much fun. But I’m not too worried. We’ll have Prince Kragen with us. We’ll be under a flag of truce. No matter what Lebbick and everybody else thinks of us, they’ll leave us alone.’

  He chewed for a moment in silence, then added, ‘What I’m worried about is that mirror – the one that attacked the Perdon when he came here to get King Joyse’s help.’

  Suddenly, Terisa found a sick taste in her mouth. ‘Didn’t Eremis change all that? He used those creatures to try to kill us outside Sternwall. He may have used them to kill Underwell. What can he still do?’

  ‘Well, he must have switched flat mirrors in the Image of the world where those creatures come from. Otherwise he couldn’t have attacked us. But he’s had plenty of time since then. He could have switched the mirrors back.

  ‘In any case, the point is that he has a glass that shows the approach to Orison, the road. He’ll be able to see us go in. He’ll be forewarned.’

  She thought about that while the taste in her mouth changed to an old, settled anger. Then she muttered, ‘At least he’ll be surprised. He won’t have any idea how we managed to talk Prince Kragen into this.’

  It did her good to be angry. Facing down Castellan Lebbick – or the Tor and Artagel, who had turned against her – would be hard enough. But confronting Master Eremis would be worse. The more she loved Geraden, the more her skin crawled at the memory of the things Master Eremis had done to her.

  She could see Geraden’s eagerness in his eyes, in the way he moved: he was starting to hurry. She had never been as confident or as clear as he was; but she, too, felt a need for haste. By tacit agreement, they left the remains of their meal. They had nothing to pack, nothing to carry. They kissed each other once, like a promise; then they went out of the tent.

  Prince Kragen was waiting for them. They caught him in the act of pacing back and forth across the open area among the luxurious tents.

  He was dressed in his ceremonial garb: a black silk doublet and pantaloons covered by a brass breastplate with a high polish; a sword in a gleaming brass scabbard on his hip; a spiked brass helmet on his curling hair. The sheen of the metal emphasized his swarthy skin; it made his black eyes glitter and his moustache shine. And his impatience only increased the self-assertion of his bearing, emphasizing his habit of command.

  Three horses were held ready beyond the tents. They, too, were dressed for show, with satin and silk streaming from their saddles and tack, gilt cords knotted into their manes and tails. Around them, an honor guard was already mounted: ten men to carry the
Prince’s pennon, and his dignity.

  Terisa didn’t see Elega anywhere.

  Prince Kragen nodded to Geraden, bowed to Terisa. In a tightly reined voice, he explained, ‘The lady Elega sends her goodwill to you – and to her father – but she cannot bid you farewell. She has already been placed under guard. The Alend Monarch intends to assure that no mistakes are made with us, and the lady Elega is his only means to that end. Even I do not know where she is held. Therefore I cannot enable the King’s men – or his Imagers – to find her.’

  Terisa swallowed hard. The sun was up, but it didn’t seem to be enjoying its work. The light over the encampment and against the walls of Orison was thin, unconvincing; the air had a cold taste, more like a residue of winter than a part of spring. The castle’s battlements looked bleak, as if they had been abandoned. If anything happened to her and Geraden there – but especially if anything happened to Prince Kragen – Elega would be in serious trouble.

  ‘My lord Prince’ – Geraden changed the subject awkwardly – ‘you must have heard about the mirror that attacked the Perdon. If he didn’t tell you about it himself, surely Elega did?’

  ‘Yes.’ A subtle shift in his expression suggested that Prince Kragen was glad to discuss something other than Elega. ‘But I must confess that I am baffled. Our siege engines have no approach to the gates, except along the road. Our rams must pass through the Image which struck at the Perdon. Yet nothing has been translated against us.

  ‘You have told me that Master Eremis is in league with Cadwal to destroy Mordant – and Alend as well. For that reason, his power has been used to defend Orison against us. Yet we are now within hours – within a day at most – of breaking down the gates, and he has done nothing to hinder us.’

  Breaking down the gates. Terisa’s stomach twisted. So it was now or never. If she and Geraden couldn’t get King Joyse to accept an alliance, Orison would fall almost immediately.

  The muscles along Geraden’s jaw bunched; but if he was worried about Orison’s vulnerability to Prince Kragen he didn’t admit it. ‘He probably hasn’t given you trouble,’ he said, ‘because you haven’t been attacking very hard. If you’re about to break in, and he still isn’t using Imagery, I’d guess his trap is just about ready to spring.’