Fortune's Fool

by Mercedes Lackey

  And on almost any given day, the first hint of hostility would have been met with such a bristling of weaponry and magics that the air itself would probably withdraw a little, just in case.

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  * * *

  The wagon approaching the Castle was not quite a gypsy caravan. It had much the same shape, but it was nothing like as brightly—one might say gaudily—painted. The two horses drawing it were also a bit odd for a gypsy caravan; they bore a suspicious resemblance to warhorses, though if that was what they were, they were also clearly past their prime. The caravan however, despite its relatively sober colors of dusty-blue and midnight, was in excellent repair and condition. The woman driving it—

  —was certainly no gypsy. Her coloring was wrong for one thing; she was tiny, and blond rather than dark of hair and eye. And very few gypsies could have afforded her clothing; blue, high-heeled boots of the finest leather, full, calf-length skirt of heavy silk twill, wide belt that matched the boots and laced up the front, and a pristine high-necked white silk blouse, heavy with embroidery down the arms and around the high collar.

  “Are we there yet?” called a voice from inside the caravan, mockingly.

  “You know, I could turn this caravan right around—” she said, laughing.

  “Bah, you wouldn’t do that, your father would have us ambushed at the first river crossing and hauled into his presence.” Sasha stuck his head out through the curtains at the front of the caravan. “Ah, we are there yet!”

  Katya ruffled his hair. “You know, you could have Fortune’s Fool

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  been the one driving. Then you wouldn’t have had to keep asking.”

  “So you could lounge back there like an odalisque in splendid isolation? I think not!”

  “Or you could have sat up here with me.”

  “But then I couldn’t keep asking ‘are we there yet?’”

  His eyes sparkled with laughter, then he turned to examine the lake and the Castle. “Well, hard to believe all this went up in a year.”

  She shrugged. “When you have that many magicians available to make things happen, that many magical workers, and that much magic that The Tradition is throwing at a place to erase the last little thought of something like a Jinn, things tend to happen quickly.

  Castle first, or Father?”

  “Castle.” He sighed. “While this arrangement of split-ting our services between your father and mine is an excellent idea, I must admit I am not looking forward to a year of eating seaweed balls and raw fish.”

  “It isn’t all seaweed balls and raw fish,” she replied, then reached behind his head and pulled him to her to kiss him.

  The horses continued to plod along, not needing her hand on the reins, which was just as well anyway. “Besides,” she murmured into his ear. “Remember how you liked the honeymoon underwater?”

  “Hmm.” He chuckled.

  Katya had very fond memories of all of the ways that being buoyant improved lovemaking, and from the state of things, so did he.

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  “All right then.”

  “Horses,” he murmured. “Drive now, canoodle later.

  Ditch bad, bed good.”

  “I hear and obey, master.” She turned her attention back to the horses and the road, just in time to prevent them from going down the road to the gypsy camp and sending them across the causeway to the Castle.

  They had sent word days ago via the paper bird that they were on the way, and Klava must have had people watching from a tower for their coming. The horses had barely stopped moving when there was a groom at their head to take them and the caravan off to the stables, and Klava herself came flying down the stairs to catch Katya up in an exuberant embrace. Only after she had hugged Katya and kissed Sasha, was Katya able to take a look at her outfit.

  It was a confection in scarlet; panniered overskirt, brocaded underskirt, low-cut bodice, puffed half sleeves reaching to the elbow, with her hair put up and a wide scarlet ribbon with a bow at the back around her neck.

  Scarlet lace everywhere it was logical to put lace. “Well!

  I see we have chosen a theme, finally!” Katya remarked, eyes sparkling with laughter, since the last time she had heard from Klava, the latter had been unable to settle on a Fairy name.

  “Cardinal Fairy. There is a lovely vine called Cardinal Climber, as it happens, and I love red,” Klava replied, dimpling.

  “And a good thing you do, too,” Sasha chuckled.

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  “Well, there will be no mistaking you for your mentor, for certain!”

  “Godmother Elena the Lilac Fairy? They’d have to be blind.” Klava laughed at that. “Not even at a distance!

  Come along, you two, you must be famished!”

  “So tell me, what has been happening?” Katya asked, allowing herself to be pulled inside the Castle by her friend.

  “Since you cheated us of a wedding here by having it underwater, Marina had hers right here,” Klava replied, taking them to the old throne room, which was now, by the heavy tables and benches, the Chapter refectory. It clearly made a lovely place to eat, what with all the windows. The old battle banners of the Katschei’s conquests had been taken down and replaced with new ones, presumably representing the victories of the new Chapter.

  “So she married that bashful boy from her village? I hope he knows he’s to do all the cooking,” Katya replied.

  “One touch of a fire—”

  “No!” Klava exclaimed. “That’s the wonderful part! Do you remember that delegation of Flora’s people, the ones that came in this winter on reindeer-drawn sledges?”

  “I remember you writing me about them. Why?”

  Katya was momentarily distracted by the arrival of what looked like a child bearing bowls of meat-filled borscht and cups of wine. Except it obviously wasn’t a child….

  “She and the youngest fellow, Flora’s cousin, I think, took one look at each other and simply fell head over heels! Here’s the best part—he’s from so far north, the snow never melts!” At Katya’s astonished look, Klava 388

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  clapped her hands and laughed. “It’s true! Can you think of anything more perfect for a snow maiden?”

  “Not unless she married Father Frost! That’s lovely, but what about her poor old parents?” Katya nearly swooned when she tasted the borscht; she hadn’t had any soup that good in—well—a very long time.

  “They are very happy for her, but I think it was a relief for them to know that they were not going to have to guard against her melting anymore,” Klava told them.

  “It’s a definite consideration,” Sasha put in. “Good saints, Klava, who is your cook? This is amazing!”

  Klava chuckled. “We have Brownies now. Wait until you taste the bread!”

  So that’s what the little person wa—ah, is! Katya thought, as the small fellow returned with a basket of bread so fresh-baked it was steaming, and a pot of butter.

  “We’ll have to spend more time here, that’s clear!”

  Sasha said, cutting a slice and buttering it. “Oh—my—

  ” he added around his first bite. “Definitely.”

  “The advantages of being an apprentice Godmother—though Elena keeps threatening to turn me loose on my own!” Klava didn’t look the least bit unhappy about that idea however, which made Katya take a longer look at her.

  Hmm, I should think so. It’s time.

  “Good. It’s about time Led Belarus had a Godmother, what with all of this going on.” Sasha waved his hand wide to indicate the entire lake complex. “A Fortunate Fool can only do so much, you know.”

  “I know, believe me, I know.” Klava rolled her eyes.

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  “The Baba Yagas alone could keep a Godmother busy. It’s a good thing that they tend to do as much good as evil.”

&nb
sp; “And speaking of evil, we met with Sergei on the road,” Sasha told her. “He’s just back from the City of Brass. They have the bottle and have agreed to keep it, but he told us they were playing very aloof and not terribly communicative, so heaven only knows what they plan to do about the Jinn.”

  Klava pursed her lips. “Well…he’s their problem now.

  Or their Godmother’s, if they have any such thing.”

  “Definitely their problem,” Katya said firmly, getting the last little bit of broth from the bottom of the bowl.

  “After we bottled him, I saw that the writing had changed.

  Now he’s bound in there until he reforms. If he does, he gets out, and then they will have to deal with him.”

  Klava gave her a long look. “You know, I don’t know that I would have taken that generous a hand with him.

  I still like ‘Until the twelfth of Never.’ Or ‘Until all frogs become princes.’ Something like that.”

  Sasha thoughtfully ate his last bite of bread. “We do have to deal with the repercussions of being a Fortunate Fool,” he said, as Katya nodded.

  “Then I’m glad I’m a Godmother. I can be vindictive on occasion.” Klava laughed. “Now that you’ve had the edge taken off your hunger, care to come visit Adamant and Gina?”

  “Of course!” Swinging their legs over the benches, they followed Klava out to the practice grounds.

  There a number of would-be young Champions were 390

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  hard at work under the direction of the two dragons.

  Gina was instructing one group in swordwork, while Adamant was patiently on the receiving end of blows from quarterstaves.

  “More wrist!” they both happened to be saying, as the three of them came into view. Both looked up at the same time, and all work on the ground halted as the students craned their necks to see who was coming.

  “Sasha! Katya!” Adamant reared up a little and arced his wings. “Oh good to see you! How do you like the changes?”

  “Impressive,” Sasha chuckled. “Anyone would think this was a place where important people came.”

  “Well of course it is!” Adamant said, grinning. “We’re here, aren’t we?”

  Gina cuffed him with a wing.

  “In all seriousness,” the emerald dragon said, slowly.

  “This is something that has been needed for a while. Not just a Godmother for this part of the world, and not just a Chapter House, but a place where those who are not human can safely send representatives to those who are.

  There has been some very interesting talk going on over in those embassies. I think we’ve done a fine thing here.”

  “If so, it was entirely by accident,” Sasha replied, and shrugged. “The way most things tend to happen with me.”

  “Trust to Luck,” Katya added, and grinned.

  After a few more pleasantries, they parted. Klava led them through the gardens, then paused, waiting for their reaction.

  Before them was a statue carved from a single piece Fortune’s Fool

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  of quartz crystal, of a young woman in a dancing dress, arms and face raised toward the sky. The crystal had been carved, and the statue placed so that the sun filled it with light.

  It was Guiliette.

  Katya gasped. “How—”

  “The Queen’s carvers,” Klava said with pride. “They asked me questions and made sketches until they got her face right. Then they carved the statue.”

  “It’s perfect,” Katya said quietly. And then she smiled.

  “If there is one single thing I am happiest about, it is that she freed herself.”

  Klava nodded, and they both gazed at the statue for a while in silence. The carvers had somehow managed to put on the statue’s face the one expression that Katya had not seen on Guiliette’s until the end.

  Joy.

  Finally Sasha cleared his throat. “If we don’t see the others soon, they are going to have our hides,” he reminded them.

  Katya laughed. “I think I shall keep my hide thank you! Let’s go!”

  Magda was holding court, so to speak, in the gypsy camp. She insisted on brewing them tea and told them firmly that she would not read their fortunes, since she never read the cards for family. She introduced them to most of the camp, people who looked so much alike that Katya wondered how Magda kept them all sorted in her mind, and then she sent them on their way after 392

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  extracting a promise to come back that evening for dancing and music.

  Lyuba greeted them just as enthusiastically as Klava had. Although they had both heard of the changes to the mercenary company that had once worked for the Jinn, this was the first time they had actually seen these changes with their own eyes.

  The livery was now light and a dark grey and cotton mix had lightened the wool. All the men wore a snarling Wolf head on their tunics, and the company banner bore the likeness of a running female Wolf.

  Lyuba herself wore the same uniform as the men, and they all treated her with respect and as an officer—except for Piotr, who treated her with respect in public, and with relentless teasing in private. But she teased right back, just as relentlessly, and with the same good humor.

  They paid their respects to the Queen’s Ambassador.

  Sasha didn’t recognize him, but he didn’t expect to, though they both paid close attention to everyone else in the Embassy. After all, tomorrow the man who served them tea might be the Ambassador, and the Ambassador might be serving as a secretary. The Queen herself, it was said, would likely not be coming out of her mountain for a long while. Her appearance to put down the Jinn was a rarity, and it would take something even more powerful to induce her to repeat that incident.

  And then—it was time to visit the Sea King.

  The Embassy was half above, and half below the water, Fortune’s Fool

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  to accommodate those who couldn’t bear the thought of venturing below the surface. For those who could—

  There was a chamber where one could change into costumes more suitable for the half of the Embassy where, to be honest, the real work was done.

  “Well,” Katya said glancing at Sasha with resignation.

  “We might as well.”

  “If we do, we’ll at least come back to dry clothes,”

  Sasha pointed out.

  She nodded. Katya put on her old fish-scale armor, and Sasha something very similar. Then, after Sasha swallowed one of the seaweed balls that allowed him to breathe underwater, they plunged into the pool that led down below the surface.

  What the King was going to do when winter froze this lake over, Katya didn’t know. It might be possible to have the same sort of magic put on the place that kept the waters of the Palace warm and comfortable. That wasn’t her problem though, for which she was monumentally grateful.

  She found her father tending to dispatches, and the moment he saw the two of them, he left all of it to greet them.

  “I want to know everything you’ve been doing,” he told them, drawing them off to another room, as his aides tactfully steered petitioners away. “I know you sent me reports, but there are so many things I need to know!

  For instance—about that rogue witch who was changing the weather—”

  They talked for hours, it seemed, while the water 394

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  about them grew dark, and the light globes began to shine. Finally he settled back with a sigh.

  “I know that you just got here, but there are so many things I need you to investigate—” he said reluctantly.

  Sasha laughed, and Katya chuckled. “I told him that was what you would say. It was just what his father said,”

  she replied. “You two are frighteningly alike.”

  Her father paused, and looked seriously into their faces. “I hope that you know that you are more, far more to me than just my investigators, my solvers of problems, and my Fortunate Fools,” he s
aid, his earnest tone of voice making it clear that he meant this, felt it.

  “I have always loved my daughter, Sasha, more than anything other than my wife and her siblings. And since she loves you, you are a part of that. I don’t want you to forget that. Especially when it seems as if all I am doing is using you.”

  Katya’s breath caught, and she looked at Sasha. He looked incredibly moved. “I know that, sir,” he replied softly. “I do know that. But I also know that things have to get handled, and not always when we have the leisure for them. We both know that. It comes with the duty.”

  Then he grinned. “That said, if you ever find a sealed bottle at the bottom of the ocean and open it— you can handle what comes out on your own! And I am perfectly serious about that one!”

  The King looked at his son-in-law for a moment, and blinked. “I suppose it would be all right if I got a Champion to deal with it….”

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  Katya raised an eyebrow. “With Klava here? What do you think?”

  After a long pause, the King cleared his throat. “All right then. New edict. All sealed bottles to be strictly left alone. There’s almost never anything in them worth bothering with anyway. Now, about this overture from Acadia—they claim they are having trouble with some sea creature they call a Kraken—”

  Sasha glanced over at Katya. “Never a dull moment, is there?” he whispered.

  “Would you have it any other way?” she whispered back.

  “Are you two paying attention?” the King asked abruptly.

  “Of course. Acadia. Kraken. Question as to whether we should investigate, or just tell them to talk to the dragons.”

  “Ah. Good.” He launched back into his litany.

  No I wouldn’t, Sasha mouthed at her, and smiled.

  She winked.

  Neither would I, she thought with contentment.

  Neither would I.

  FORTUNE’S FOOL

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-1482-2

  Copyright © 2007 by Mercedes Lackey

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Worldwide Library, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.