Changes

by Mercedes Lackey

  Could he? What if those shield-things recognized him and went straight into an attack? Could Dallen protect him a second time?

  Before he could make up his mind, another unshielded thought—not from Ice and Stone, but someone else entirely, echoed across the ghostly spaces where he floated.

  An image. Amily. Amily, bound and gagged, terrified and alone.

  ::Mags!::

  It wasn’t an image in the present—he knew immediately that Amily was safe in her own bed. This was something someone had seen . . . no, Foreseen.

  ::Mags!::

  He ignored Dallen and focused on that thought, on that mind, fear and anger turning his will into a rapier with a tip of diamond, searching until he found the mind that held that vision.

  He didn’t have to “follow” anything this time—he was there, right there, in a room here in the Palace, catapulted into the midst of a small group of people. Nikolas, the King, a Herald he didn’t recognize, three people in the robes of three different Temples, the Lord Marshal, a couple of Healers.

  “. . . I thought perhaps we’d averted it when we canceled the procedure on Amily’s leg,” the strange Herald was saying. “But all four of us got the same vision within an hour of each other. These people are going to try again to take Herald Nikolas’ daughter and hold her to force him to do what they tell him to. Last time we got a vision, they were going to take her either just before or just after her leg was reset. We couldn’t tell which—”

  “Probably because they didn’t know which; it was going to be a matter of opportunity,” the King said, face impassive. “But now?”

  “As you must have expected, Your Highness, they are going to use the Kirball Festival, and the crowds and the confusion . . .”

  Nikolas groaned. “There’s no hope for it. I can’t allow her to be used as a tool to manipulate me. We’ll have to find somewhere to send her—“

  “Niko, where would that be, exactly?” the King interrupted sharply. “The first lot were bad enough, and one of them nearly murdered a stableful of Companions, but these—there doesn’t seem to be anything that will stop them. And it isn’t Amily that they’re after—not really—they have some broader agenda that begins with breaking you. And we don’t know what that agenda is. We don’t even know who they are or where they’re from!”

  Mags was furious, a swirling, seething anger that washed over everything for the moment, since its real target was out of reach. It erupted into a torrent of pure emotion that left no room for the tiniest of thought, turning him into a fireball of rage and hate.

  A fireball that burned out as quickly as it had erupted, as his chin hit the hard surface of the table and he came abruptly back to himself.

  He was shaking, shaking with reaction and with weakness and, a little, with cold. His head felt fit to burst. Pain throbbed behind his eyes; his mouth was as dry as a handful of sand.

  And he truly, deeply, wanted to kill someone.

  ::Mags?:: Dallen whispered.

  ::Aye. ’Tis all right.:: Well, now the mystery was solved. He knew why the Healing had been canceled. And he thought . . . maybe . . .

  One of the images he’d gotten from the Agents was of a keystone pulled from an arch, and he thought he knew now what it was they were here to do. Amily was just the keystone. They had correctly identified the weakest—and yet, the strongest—spot in the grand construction that was the Kingdom of Valdemar.

  The King’s Own.

  Take the daughter of the King’s Own, and the King’s Own crumbles. The King is without his prime support, and confidence in the Heralds is eroded Kingdomwide—after all, if the Heralds couldn’t protect Amily, who could they protect?

  Opportunistic outsiders take advantage of that uncertainty, and with the right strikes at the right time, the entire Kingdom falls apart.

  He sensed Dallen’s shock.

  ::Well, that’s how it’d look t’outsider, ye ken,:: he said grimly. ::But they don’ know Heralds.::

  With shaking hands, he pushed himself up and away from the table.

  ::I’m gonna go hev me a liddle talk wi’ King’s Own.::

  14

  Mags was still shaking with fatigue when Nikolas entered his own rooms to find him, Amily, and Bear there, waiting. It had taken some strong potions from Bear and what seemed like a bucket of salted honey-water, but at least his head wasn’t splitting, and he could think clearly. Bear had asked to come along when he talked to Amily; he welcomed the support.

  Nikolas already looked shaken as he entered his rooms; when he saw the three of them together, his face went white.

  “We know,” Amily said, calmly. “We know everything. Mags told us about your meeting.”

  Nikolas’s gaze flashed to Mags, and there was a moment of recognition on his face. So, interesting. Nikolas had sensed that Mags was in the room a few candlemarks ago—had the King?

  Probably.

  Nikolas cleared his throat carefully. “Then you know—”

  “That I am not moving one inch from the Hill,” she interrupted. “I’m just the lever to overset you. They know if they kill you, someone else will be Chosen as King’s Own within a week. So what they want to do is weaken you—or better still, break you.“

  “Of course,” Nikolas said harshly. “That’s obvious. And when the news got out that my own daughter had been—” He shook his head. “People would say, if the Heralds can’t keep one girl safe on the Hill, why should we trust their judgement, their ability, anywhere else? Pressure from within, pressure from without, the Heralds start to fall apart. From there it’s only a matter of time before the Kingdom falls apart, divides into little warring factions. That’s why I have to get you away from here, you have to go into hiding. Right out of the Kingdom if—”

  “No,” Amily and Mags said together. He took her hand in his.

  “Thet ain’t gonna do it,” he said. “I went huntin’ fer these critters t’night. Ye send ’er away, they’ll hev ’er afore she’s halfway t’next city. They’re more’n good, sir, there better’n anythin’ ye’ve ever seen at what they do. They jest don’ stop till they git what they want, an’ they don’ let nothin’ stand i’ their way.” He tried not to sound as if he were accusing Nikolas but he wasn’t sure if he managed it. “Admit it; ye knew th’ moment I tol’ ye ’bout the spies up here thet I was right.”

  Nikolas flushed a little. “You were right. The Foreseers had already gotten that much the first time. I’m sorry, all of you, sorry I was not allowed to tell you.”

  Mags nodded a brief acknowledgement of the apology. “So ye wanta send Amily away—well, there’s people spyin’ fer ’em, planted right up ’ere. So they’ll know yer sendin’ ’er away. Mebbe they won’t know when she leaves, mebbe they won’ even know tha’s what yer gonna do, but they’ll know soon’s she’s gone, an’ they’ll find ’er. It ain’t gonna work. They’ll track ’er down. Ain’t no way ye kin keep ’em from findin’ ’er.”

  “You should have told us what was going on in the first place, Father,” Amily continued, as Nikolas looked as if he wanted to dig a hole right there and stuff his daughter into it to keep her safe. “It wasn’t right. And if you’d told us, we could have been thinking of ways to catch these men all this time.”

  “ ’Idin’ ’er ’ere i’ th’ Palace, an’ startin’ a rumor she bin sent off ain’t gonna work, neither,” Mags pointed out, divining the next turn Nikolas’s thoughts would take. “ ’Ow’s thet gonna help Amily, by makin’ ’er a prisoner? ’Sides, s’pose ye kin keep ’er safe i’ dungeon, say, wi’ a mort’a Guards; these bastiches ain’t stupid, they’ll swap t’ some other target. An’ ye won’t know who ’tis.”

  “I want some say in this,” Amily said, her voice shaking. “This is my life we’re talking about. I don’t want to spend it locked up like a prisoner, or watching over my shoulder in some strange place I’ve never heard of. In fact, I don’t want other people making decisions for me anymore. Not even you, Father. Not even you.
”

  Mags squeezed her hand. She squeezed back. Mind you, he hated this. But he couldn’t deny her this, either. Guarding her back was one thing. Protecting her like a child did no one any good.

  “You said yourself that you know what all this is about. Well, the way to stop it is to stop them cold right at the beginning of their plan. Thanks to the Foreseers, we know what they’re going to do. So we let them. Or we let them try, anyway.” She raised her chin and looked her father square in the eye. “You are not the only one in this family that is willing to risk everything for Valdemar.”

  “No—Amily, I can’t let you do this!” Nikolas protested.

  “You mean, you can’t stop me from doing this,” she corrected. “We’ve spoken to the King and the Lord Marshal, and they both agree this is the smartest plan.” She smiled a little, shakily. “Or, as the Lord Marshal put it, ‘There is nothing that ruins a bad person’s day quite as thoroughly as an ambushed ambush.’ ”

  “Amily—”

  She shook her head. “We may have discussed this only briefly, but it wasn’t difficult to come to that conclusion, Father. They are not aware we know of their plans. That makes this our best chance to catch them off guard. You’ve put both yourself, and Mags, at far greater risk in the past. Yes, you are very highly trained, but Mags is only a Trainee. And I have been thinking about this while we waited for you. The logical time for me to serve as bait for this trap is going to be during the Kirball games. That’s when there will be the most noise and confusion, the best time for them to take advantage of the crowds. They will believe they have the upper hand, when in fact we are the ones in control.”

  Now all three of them, Bear, Mags, and her father, stared at her aghast and in disbelief.

  Then they all began talking at once.

  Mags was frantic. How could he protect her if she was among the spectators and he was on the field? When she’d told him her intention of going ahead and acting as bait, he’d agreed because he planned to be right there to guard her. It wasn’t something he would trust to anyone else. Besides, he knew how Ice and Stone “felt,” and he would know if they got close!

  He tried to make himself heard, but after a moment of babbling, he finally shut up and let Bear and the King’s Own rattle on while he thought—hard.

  Finally Nikolas and Bear both ran out of objections and left him a chance to put in his own oar.

  “Look, Amily,” he said, trying to sound reasoned and logical, “Kirball’s dangerous, aye? I mean, th’ game. Ye’ve seen it. Ye saw Corwin took off wi’ smashed arm.”

  Taken by surprise by the apparent change in subject, she nodded.

  ::Sir,:: he said, wincing a little at the ache in his head that using Mindspeech was giving him at the moment. Dallen was right; using that crystal took an awful lot out of whoever was crazy enough to try it. No wonder there wasn’t a line to use it in front of that room! ::She’s made up ’er mind, an’ ye ain’t gonna talk ’er outa doin’ this. But lemme try an’ show ’er why hers ain’t the best plan.::

  Nikolas bit his lip, but he didn’t interrupt.

  “Kirball’s dangerous. Ev’body knows thet. Nobuddy’d think nothing if somethin’ happened an’ I ate serious dirt. Like, I go down an’ I don’ git up. But there’d be a big to-do, an’ ye’d not be thinkin’ ’bout bein’ carried off right then, ye’d be askeert an’ tryin’ t’git t’me, an’ th’ crowd’d be millin’ an’ shoutin’ an’ tryin’ t’see an’ ev’body’s attention’d be on me an’ not on you. Ye kin bet they’d figger thet out. Prolly plan t’ do somethin’ t’ make me eat dirt so’s they’d git thet chance t’ grab ye.”

  As he saw her eyes grow wide, he drove home the last nail. “An’ iffen they wanted ye all quiet an’ not fightin’ an not thinkin’, while they was seein’ ’bout makin’ me eat dirt, they might think about how t’make it permanent. ’Cause ye ain’t gonna be in no shape t’do nothin’ if ye done passed out or somethin’ an’ I ain’t gonna be comin’ fer ye if I’m dead.”

  “If it was me, I’d set it up so I had some way to make her faint,” Bear put in. “I can think of a couple just off the top of my head. No one would be surprised, and if you had people in Healers Green come carry her off, no one would stop them, either.”

  Amily was white now, to match her father, and slowly nodded.

  “Now . . . playin’ bait durin’ t’other Kirball games . . . tha’s not a bad thought,” Mags continued. “Jest not durin’ mine. I kin stick wi’ ye—hellfires, ye know how t’ride Dallen, an’ ’e knows you, ye kin be on ’im, ain’t noplace safer, an’ I don’ think these fellers really unnerstand what a Companion is. I thin’ they thin’ Companions’re jest extree smart horses. Even iffen they got some ideer Companions’re more’n thet, I don’ thin’ they got ary notion jest ’ow special they be.”

  ::You say the sweetest things,:: Dallen said dryly. ::But I like the idea of her being on me. She will be safest there.::

  “Ev’body’ll say, ‘So sweet, lookee there, them two mun be t’gether,’ aye?” He nodded a little. “None on ’em are gonna thin’ ye know howta really ride ’im.” He blew out his breath. “Now, look ye, I know th’ way them fellers minds feel. I’ll know iffen they even get close. An’ I kin give a mind-shout when they be, an’ where they be. Like when I mind-shout th’ ball i’ the game, on’y they be th’ ball.”

  For a plan he’d come up with on the fly, it wasn’t bad. It let Amily do what she wanted to do, when she wanted to do it. And it let him be there to stick by her, because no one was going to get her without eliminating him, first.

  Nikolas took a deep breath, and some of the color came back into his face. “All right then. Amily, you are right, I have no business telling you that you cannot do something only you can do for this Kingdom—even though I hate the bare thought of it. I’m sure the King and his advisers are still trying to work some way out of this predicament; I will go and tell them what we’ve decided, and they can put together a coherent plan.”

  ::Should we tell ’im we already did?:: Mags asked Dallen. ::Well, except for th’ part ’bout doin’ it durin’ th’ Kirball game . . . ::

  ::No. Let him keep some shreds of his dignity.::

  Nikolas got up, still shaking a little, and looked down at the three of them. “I think you are both very brave, and very insane,” he said to Mags and Amily.

  “Says the man in the ‘Here I Am, Shoot Me’ uniform,” muttered Bear.

  Mags shrugged. “Reckon best way t’keep Amily safe’s t’let ’em think they got high ground when it’s us’s got it.”

  “I hope you’re right, Mags,” the King’s Own said, and left.

  “It’ll be all right,” Pip said, as Mags fidgeted with his gloves for the twentieth time. “No one, and I mean no one, is going to try to get her where she is right now.”

  “I wouldn’t try it,” Gennie agreed. “She’s out in the open, and there’s a stiff wind, so that means these people can’t use some sort of smoke or powder to incapacitate everyone. If they had incredibly powerful Mind-Magic, they’d have used it already. There’re Heralds all around the ring. There’s absolutely no way you could eliminate all those dogs. You might be able to do something to, oh, maybe half of them. And the ones you didn’t—” She shook her head. “They’re boarhounds and deerhounds, sure, but Herald Sorald told them to protect her while she’s there. When Sorald tells an animal to do something, it generally gets the job done.”

  Right now, Amily was judging a dog contest. She was, indeed, surrounded by wolfhounds, boarhounds, deerhounds, and bearhounds—not to mention a nice selection of the enormous mastiffs trained from puppyhood to guard children. She was in the middle of a riding ring, set up for horse and hound judging. A Herald with the Gift of Animal Mindspeech had—so Mags understood—made it quite clear that besides behaving themselves and ignoring anything that might be a distraction, the dogs were all required to protect Amily from any threat.

  This, or so those whose expertise in this
sort of thing said, was likely to drive the Agents and any help they had hired on insane. There she was, out in the open and untouchable. They all felt that this would make the Agents snatch at the first opportunity that presented itself to make their play.

  Mags wasn’t so sure about that. If the Agents really had recruited local criminals for this—certainly. But to his mind, they were much, much too cool to be irritated into acting before they were ready. No, he was pretty certain that, despite all their plans, something would happen where, for a moment, everyone would be caught off guard, and only then would the kidnappers move in.

  As he saw it at this point, his job was not so much to keep them from taking Amily himself but to buy time for the rest of her protectors and the ambushers to get to them. It was one thing to tell himself that there was no way they would get to Amily except through him—but the reality was the very best he and Dallen could do, if Ice and Stone were as good as he thought they were, was to delay them until the odds were just too great for them to succeed.

  ::Are you sensing anything?:: Dallen asked.

  ::I’m thinkin’ mebbe I put m’foot in’t when I bumped them shields,:: he admitted ruefully. ::I’m thinkin’ now them things knows me, an’ they closed up even tighter nor afore.::

  ::If you did, there’s nothing we can do that will change that, so you have to watch for the shields themselves,:: Dallen admonished. ::And if you didn’t, then they’ll be leaking away, and you need to watch for the telltale signs of them.::

  “Hate it when yer right,” Mags muttered.

  “What?” Pip whipped his head around.

  “Jest—Dallen.”

  “Right.” None of them really had their heads in the game today. Mags wished he’d been able to divulge what was going on, but even if the only ones he’d told were his fellow Grays, that still meant there was a chance that Ice and Stone would get wind of the plan. Only the specific Heralds guarding Amily knew what had been predicted. I’d still feel a hella lot better iffen t’others knew . . .