by Dave Duncan
“Is the council still in session?” she demanded.
“Er … yes, ma’am.” The little footman seemed sober enough, although one could never be sure with him.
“Good. Go and sound the fire alarm.”
His pale jotunn eyes widened like two snowballs. “Ma’am?”
“A practice. You heard me. Go!” She had not held a fire drill all winter and this would be a very good time, with Lin and the other leaders tied up in the council, but she was not going to explain all that to Pret. “I’ll look after Gath,” she shouted as he hurried off.
She went back into the parlor and closed the door. “Let’s see if we can lift him.”
Kadie looked just as disbelieving as Pret had done. “Is this wise, Mom?”
So Inos was back to being Mom again. “No, it isn’t, but we have to do it. He hasn’t any broken bones, the doctor said.” Gath was taller than either of them and heavier than his willowy shape would have suggested-or perhaps he just seemed so because he was so limp. He hardly seemed to notice as he was maneuvered back onto the stretcher, although his gray eyes opened. He was more delirious than unconscious, muttering anxiously about imaginary goblins. As soon as he was tucked in, he went back to sleep.
Inos raised one end of the litter, and Kadie the other, and they exchanged worried glances.
“Can you manage?”
“I think so,” Kadie said doubtfully.
The corridor was empty. In the distance Pret was beating a carillon on the fire gong and there was shouting farther away yet. “Come on!” Inos said, and they headed for the hall.
The room above the Throne Room had once been called the Presence Chamber. Now it was just a storage for unneeded furniture, and it was cold. Inos wrapped Gath up in the extra blankets. He roused again, slightly, seeming to use his eyes alternately, as if they were pointing in different directions. He mumbled, but all she could make out was “Mustn’t! … screaming? Torturing people! “
“Yes, dear. Terrible.” Shivering, she pulled on her winter furs. “Come on, Kadie. Your father used to call you a little mule. Now you’re going to have to live up to it. “
The stairs winding up inside the walls of Inisso’s Tower were steep and narrow. Inos made her daughter go first, which left her struggling to hold the stretcher high enough to keep Gath from sliding down on top of her. She recalled tales of lionesses defending their young and the maniacal strength attributed to desperate women rescuing their children-right now she could use some of that. She reminded herself that Rap had carried her up this tower once, and she had certainly weighed more than Gath. Rap had a lot more muscle than she and Kadie did, though.
They paused for a rest in the next room, their breath coming in huge clouds of smoke, as if the castle truly were on fire. Kadie looked very worried. Perhaps she really believed her mother had gone mad. Inos did not wait until the questions could start again.
“Next level! ” she said, and bent to lift the burden once more. In the stairwell, she banged her knuckles on the wall, but she did not have enough breath to say any bad words. Dim daylight filtered through tiny snow-covered windows.
Level followed level. The rests grew longer, but if they could do one stair, they could do them all. The air seemed to become ever colder.
Once in a while Gath would stir and mutter urgently about goblins. She wondered why his delirium had fixed on them. Was it possible that he had been attacked by a gang who had painted their faces green as a disguise? If so, Oopari would only have to look behind the ears of every young imp in the kingdom.
She did not die of heart strain. Nor did Kadie. They did not drop Gath, or let him slide off the stretcher, and eventually they staggered into the room that had once been the royal bedchamber. The furniture was still there, shrouded in cobwebs.
“One more to go,” Inos gasped, as soon as she could speak. “Open the door.”
Kadie gave her mother a sick glance, looked carefully around the room, and said, “What door, Mama?”
The door was in plain view, but of course there was an aversion spell on it.
“That one.”
Kadie tried again. “Oh! I didn’t notice.” She took a step, and stopped. Another. No more. “I can’t, Mom! I just can’t!” Inos said, “Holindarn!” but she was still too short of breath to speak above a whisper, and that whisper wasn’t loud enough, apparently. She could feel the occult revulsion stopping her also. “Holindarn?” Kadie shouted angrily. “What’s Holi got to do with it?”
That worked. Kadie rushed over to open the secret door.
5
The final stair brought them at last to Inisso’s arcane chamber and there they again laid down the stretcher to catch their breath. Gath mumbled in his stupor.
The big room was bare, with nothing marring its circular emptiness except the angular shape of the royal treasure chestInos certainly did not intend to tell Kadie the secret word for that yet! Faint marks in the dust on the floor showed a path crossing from the stairs to the magic portal, but the traffic had been slight this winter. Occupied with being both a mother and a full-time queen, Inos had come up here only twice since Rap left, each time in answer to a summons from Aquiala. Whenever there was need, the duchess would come through from Kinvale and leave a piece of parchment against the eastern casement, which Inos could see from her bedroom. The first time the marker had been a note from Rap, two days after he left, and the second paper had been an invitation to the Kinvale ball, which Inos had declined. She had done so in person, and thereby enjoyed a pleasant afternoon tea party.
As she stood and puffed, recalling dramatic memories of things that had happened in this chamber, her daughter was excitedly moving from casement to casement, peering down at the Winter Ocean. The sun was vanishing into the ice fog already, the brief arctic day almost over. Krasnegar did not sport as much smoke as it usually did in cold weather, which was a reminder of the peat shortage. The fire drill was probably over by now. The council would be back in session and Inos ought to return and take charge again before it voted in a republic or something …
Kadie said, “Eeeek!”
She had discovered the magic portal itself, and was peering through one of the two windows that flanked it. Straight below her, a very long way down, was the castle courtyard.
“You go first,” Inos said, still puffing. “After you, Mama!” Kadie said politely. “Let’s move Gath over there, and then I’ll explain.”
Kadie came to lift her end of the stretcher. Within the circle of her fur hood, her face was flushed with excitement. Inos thought of the day she first learned of this chamber-her father, and Sagorn, and Kade’s tea party … She had not been so very much older then than her daughter was now, a couple of years maybe. How time passed!
They rested their burden again right beside the door. “The secret word is the same as before,” Inos said, still puffing. “It was my father’s name, of course. But watch out for the wind.”
“I think I’ll watch for the step, mostly.” Sometimes Kadie showed signs of Rap’s dry humor.
“You’ll be in Kinvale, don’t worry.”
“Darling Mama, please don’t think I don’t trust you-” Inos laughed. “I know it looks scary, but remember this is sorcery! When you step through that door, you’ll find yourself in a very charming little parlor, in Kinvale. It belonged to my Aunt Kade, and no one uses it now. It’s been left just as it was, as a sort of memorial to her. It’s a wonderfully cozy room, you’ll love it. Go ahead. “
Kadie nodded uncertainly.
“Watch out for the wind, though,” Inos added. “There’s always a wind. Sometimes the door will hardly move, sometimes it flies open in your face. You want me to do it?”
“Er, no.”
“Then go ahead-try it.”
Squaring her shoulders, Kadie turned to the magic portal and twisted the handle. Nothing happened, because of course there was no door there yet.
“Magic word!”
“Oh! Holindarn! ” K
adie proclaimed. The door rattled and she jumped.
“Well, open it!”
Kadie heaved. With a great struggle, she managed to haul it wide, while the cold air of Krasnegar wailed through the sorcerous opening, filling the little parlor beyond with billowing clouds of fog. Propping the heavy door with a foot, she stooped to lift her end of the stretcher again. Stumbling, Inos followed her as she lurched through. The journey ended with a rush as the door closed on Inos’s back, propelling her forward. Then it slammed shut with a shuddering boom! The whole episode was over so quickly that the matching slam of the parlor door itself came a moment later.
Now that was odd! Why should the door of this unused little room have been open? The fog swirled, misting the windows, slowly clearing to reveal the comfy old chairs, the elegant little tables … Kadie screamed and dropped her end of the stretcher.
Taken off balance, Inos tripped over a footstool and sprawled to the floor. Gath rolled on top of her with a cry of protest. “Mom!” Kadie shrilled. “A body!”
Body? Inos lifted her face off the rug and stared in horror. It was a body. It was Aquiala, duchess of Kinvale. There was blood all over her gown and the carpet around her.
Smoke! She could smell smoke. And all that noise in the distance … Obviously Aquiala had been trying to reach the magic portal …
Gath was trying to rise. “Mom!” he wailed. “I told you!”
The door to the corridor flew wide and the goblins came in to see who was slamming doors and screaming.
There was blood on their swords.
A new face:
There’s a new foot on the floor, my friend,
And a new face at the door, my friend,
A new face at the door.
— Tennyson, The Death of the Old Year
NINE
Questionable shapes
1
“Funny,” Ylo said. “I hadn’t realized it was so far from Hub. “
He was sitting on a hillside, eating lunch. Shandie sprawled beside him, doing the same. Their horses grazed the dreary winter grass nearby. For once, the sun was shining’ almost warmly, dappling the landscape with cloud shadows. The wind had a nasty edge, but there was a vague odor of spring in it. The vast ducal palace of Rivermead sprawled below them, its paddocks, outbuildings, and ornamental gardens filling the valley floor from side to side.
“I never imagined anywhere so big, either,” he added. “You’ve never been there?”
“Once, when I was very small. We weren’t on the main line, you know.” Great-uncle Yllipo had been a distant, awesome figure in his childhood.
“Well, you are now,” Shandie said, gnawing on a hunk of sausage. “The first thing I do when I regain my throne will be to make you duke of Rivermead. That’s a promise! “
“It looks like an awful lot of work. All that grass to cut!” Shandie flickered a grin. “It’s virtually a small kingdom within the Impire. Most of the great dukedoms originated as warlord fiefs during the last interregnum. But if you’d rather have something closer to the capital, then you’ll only have to ask. I mean that, Ylo. I will grant you any honor within my power! “
Ylo chewed for a moment in silence. So that was Rivermead. Now he had seen it, and there went the last of his excuses.
He had never meant to come so far with Shandie on this journey, but one thing had led to another. First there had been the Covin’s siren call, and the need to save the imperor from that, with the aid of Eemfume and his three friends. When the Covin had given up, he had decided to hang around for a few days to make sure that was not just a trick. And then there had been the opportunity to pervert Shandie’s too-rigid code of ethics by introducing him to the arts of wenching and debauchery.
That had been a lot of fun, but the need for further education seemed to be over. The imperor was still a reluctant lecher, but he was a great deal more competent than he had been. He could roister with the best of them now, and Ylo never heard complaints from the next bed anymore. Shandie was a lot more human than he had been. In fact, he was excellent company, and that was the root of Ylo’s problem-he was enjoying this excursion. Somehow he always seemed to put off his departure for one more day. Recently he had justified his procrastination with the never-to-be-repeated opportunity to take a look at Rivermead.
There it was. Now what? If he did not depart soon, he was not going to make it back to Yewdark in time for the daffodils. Who was he to negate the prophecy of the preflecting pool?
“Wonder what that is?” he muttered, pointing westward. A faint haze of dust on the skyline looked eerily familiar-looked, in fact, like the dust raised by a marching army.
“What what is?” Shandie asked. He rose to his knees and stared.
2
At the bottom of the hill, Rap eased back on the reins and let the team come to a halt. He set the brake and jumped down to the dirt. As he stretched to ease his stiffness, Thinal peered out the coach window. For the last hour, Thinal had been expertly shaving dice.
“Something wrong?”
“Just letting the horses have a breather.”
The sun shone low in a cloudless blue sky. Here in the dry lands it gave real warmth even so early in the year-Rap wiped his brow. All around him, the land was rumpled and brown, bereft of signs of human habitation except for a few crumbling cattle pens in the distance. In another month the grass and scrub would turn to a brief green lushness before summer burned them dry again. An ominous line of cloud to the south concealed the icy summits of the Mosweep Range, the highest mountains in Pandemia. This side was almost a desert; the far side held the great rain forests that were his destination.
He strolled forward to comfort his weary stock. Thanks to some skillful trading, they were a far better collection of horses than he had set out with, but they had had a long day already.
Thinal climbed down and looked around with disgust. “Desert does not appeal,” he remarked sourly.
“Quite.” Rap walked back to confront him-that being the main reason for the halt. “By evening we should be in Ysarth. “
“So?” The thief’s ratty face became even more cagey than usual.
“So tomorrow I’m going to sell off the coach. It’s served its purpose. ” Here, in the south, fauns would be less exceptional, and there would be few observers anyway in a land so thinly inhabited.
“Horseback?” Thinal muttered, pouting. “Horseback. Quicker.”
“Not my style.”
” ‘Fraid.of that. Besides, I promised to tell you if I smelled danger. I don’t, yet. But I feel I’m going to, soon, if you follow me. Can you call a replacement now?”
Thinal hesitated, as if making some internal test. “Yup. It’ll be an effort, but yup. Who do you want?”
Rap smiled. “What’s my choice?” Obviously Thinal could not call Sagorn, who had called him.
“Andor or Jalon. ” The thief grinned back. “I can’t call Darad for you this time. You might be safer with someone who can, if things are going to get dicey. “
Jalon would be good company. Andor would not, but Rap would have to deal with Andor sooner or later. “Let’s have your brother, then.”
Thinal nodded. “How’s your war coming, King?”
He had never shown the slightest interest before. Was he mellowing, or was he only concerned with his own chances of surviving in a world ruled by the Covin?
“Not much happening,” Rap said. He pulled out the magic scrolls and skimmed through them. They were all blank. “The warlock’s disappeared completely. I’ve had nothing from him. Umpily seems to be still at large, which is incredible. Acopulo was last heard from dying of seasickness. Shandie had some problems at first, but young Ylo pulled him through.”
“Ylo’s still with him? Ain’t that a purple chicken, then?” Rap raised eyebrows. Thinal was a very shrewd judge of people. “Meaning?”
The thief grinned. “Thought he had other ideas. Every time he looked at the impress, his pants just about strangled him. Oh,
well, we can’t all get what we want out of life, can we?” His eyes twinkled mischievously as he held out a hand. “Good luck, Rap.”
“Thanks, Thinal.”
Rap found himself shaking hands with Andor. The changes were always like that-instantaneous. They released each other’s grip quickly.
Andor scowled. His face might be a trifle plumper, but basically.he had not changed. He was still much too handsome, much too devious. He was freshly shaved, his dark curls neatly combed.
“Welcome to the great cause,” Rap said.
Andor snorted. He glanced down at his garments, which were obviously tight on him. “My brother’s taste in clothing has not improved, has it?”
“He has, though. He helped a lot. I was impressed.”
The dark eyes flickered contemptuously. “And you want to know if I will?”
“Please. “
Andor surveyed the empty hills.
“Think you’ll be safe here to impose a little compulsion on me if I get awkward?”
Rap shook his head. “No. There’s still no sorcery being used, not even here in Pithmot. The Covin’s being quiet, but it’s still there, and it could hear me here if I did anything very much.” He reached out with his premonition, cautiously. The great evil lay far to the northeast, now, over distant Hub, but it still dominated the ambience like a black mountain. “I don’t detect any excitement in the immediate future.”
Andor shrugged. “My primary aim has always been to keep my blood inside my skin, your Majesty. You know that. But I’ll stick around.”
His reservations showed to a sorcerer. He was no more trustworthy than his larcenous brother, and he would undoubtedly seduce any pretty girl who came within reach. Fortunately Andor’s talent rattled the ambience much less than Thinal’s did. Rap was not about to admit that to Andor, though. In fact, he ought to give him a warning lecture …
Tremor!
Rap jumped, and turned to stare at the north. For a moment he reached out, querying-and then hastily restrained his power before he gave himself away. At least, he hoped he had not given himself away.