An hour later they emerged to find four boys throwing rocks andother small objects, trying to land them on the hovering carpet. WhenTobas cleared his throat, the four took one look at him, then turnedand ran.
No one pursued them, though Alorria looked as if she wanted to.Instead Tobas picked Karanissa up by the waist and tossed her upward,as lightly as if she were a mere toy rather than a grown woman—witchcraft again, obviously.
She caught the edge of the carpet and pulled herself up. A momentlater a shower of pebbles, sticks, half-eaten candies, and bits ofstring tumbled down. Gresh grinned at the sight; Alorria frownedfuriously. Apparently those boys had been at it for some time and hadbeen fairly successful at their game.
“Is anything damaged or missing?” Tobas called up, gesturing as hedid so.
“No.”
And with that, the carpet began descending. When it was low enough,Tobas lifted Alorria and Alris into place, and then the men clamberedaboard. When everyone was settled in their accustomed places Tobaswaved a hand, and they soared up and out of the market.
Their route now took them east across the city, from the crowdedstreets of Westgate to the elegant shops of the New Merchants’ Quarter,then over the rooftops of the mansions of New City. Gresh watched theoverlord’s palace slip past on the left and tried to make sense of thetangled streets of the Old City, but they were no more comprehensiblefrom up here than they were on the ground.
Then they sailed over Allston and Hempfield and Eastgate and outover the city wall into the sandy expanse of the eastern peninsula. Noone farmed here, but a few homes were scattered about, and along thebeaches to the left Gresh could see children digging for clams.
The coastline curved away to the north, and the wasteland below grewmore deserted, until an hour after they had left the city the coastlinereappeared ahead of them. They had reached the Gulf of the East andheaded out over open water.
Before long the land was lost behind them, and only water was insight in all directions. Save for an occasional glimpse of a merchantship’s sails in the distance, the monotony of the crossing was unbrokenuntil the coast of the Small Kingdoms appeared, rushing toward them.
This land was no flat oversized sandbar like the peninsula, but wasrolling green hills behind a line of crumbling brown cliffs. Tobasadjusted the carpet’s altitude, taking it higher to be sure of clearingall obstructions; it had descended a little while crossing the Gulf.
As they soared over the white line of surf breaking against thesteep slopes below, Tobas pointed out the forbidding stone fortressthat clung to a rocky stretch of shoreline just to the south.“Imryllirion,” he said.
Farms and meadows flashed past, and mere moments later they passedalmost directly over another castle, a few miles inland. Tobasannounced, “Chatna.”
He continued to tell Gresh, unasked, the name of each kingdom theypassed over—Hsinorium, Strivura, a corner of Nebhala, Torthon, Danua,Ekeroa, and Vectamon, though they did not pass within sight of towns orcastles in Hsinorium or Nebhala or Ekeroa, and Castle Torthon wasmerely a speck on the horizon. The trees hid most of Vectamon Castle,as well.
They crossed the river in Ekeroa, and the land began to rise, farmsgiving way to woodland. The sun was low in the sky behind them,mountains were looming ahead of them, and the carpet was rising, whenTobas said, “Lumeth of the Forest claims that land to the right.” Hegestured at what looked to Gresh like just another stretch of unbrokenforest on rolling hills. “But Vectamon and Dwomor don’t recognize theclaim.”
“It’s Dwomoritic land,” Alorria said.
“The Vectamons don’t think so, any more than the Lumethans do,”Tobas retorted.
Alorria replied in a language Gresh had never heard.
“She’s fluent in Vectamonic,” Tobas said. “But she mostly uses it toinsult them.”
Gresh decided that was a hint that he should not ask for a translation.
Then they were descending to treetop level and heading directly fora sprawling castle that appeared to be in a state of mild disrepair,and Gresh forgot the conversation and focused his attention on DwomorKeep.
Chapter Twelve
Dwomor Keep had obviously not been built quickly or recently. It occupied the center of a small plateau, surrounded by a double handful of thatched cottages that presumably constituted the capital city, butt he castle itself was quite large—easily as large as the Fortress backin Ethshar of the Rocks, at least if measured by any surface dimension.The interior volume of the solidly compact Fortress might well exceed the space enclosed within the keep’s sprawling tangle of wings, towers, and turrets, though.
Every wing or tower of Dwomor Keep seemed to have been constructed in a different architectural style. Some walls were smooth, unadorned stone, while others were rough, or decorated with elaborate carvings. Windows ranged from narrow arrow-slits to grand mullioned or tracery affairs with hundreds of leaded panes, and were made variously of clear glass, stained glass, and wooden shutters over unglazed openings.
There were two unifying features, however—every exterior wall was constructed of the same gray-brown stone, and every roof, whether tile, thatch, or slate, seemed to need repair.
As they approached close enough to see into the courtyards, Gresh discovered the inner structures to be even more varied than the outside, as these walls did not need to be good defensible stone. Somewere brick, or wood, or half-timbered plaster, or even wattle-and-daub, while others were that same gray-brown stone.
The courtyards themselves all appeared to be mud, though, untroubled by any pavement or boardwalk.
The carpet swept down toward this castle, and Tobas and both his wives began to shout and wave. People appeared in windows and on battlements, waving in response. The carpet flew a long loop around the castle so its passengers could greet everyone, but finally came soaring in toward a railed wooden platform that looked newer than any of the other structures. It stood atop an old slate roof, next to a tower where a new door appeared to have been cut into an old wall, and had no recognizable purpose for any ordinary castle.
It was, however, just the right size for landing this particular flying carpet.
The rug settled gently onto the platform, stopping when the luggage first lightly touched the wooden surface. Tobas then climbed off the front of the carpet, then stepped around the side to help his wives and child off. Gresh was left to his own devices and clambered awkwardly off, pulling his bag up and heaving it over one shoulder.
A moment later Tobas had the door open, and the entire party stepped into the tower, into a good-sized sitting room. Faded tapestries hungon several walls, and a few rather worn settees were arranged below them. Assorted tables, chairs, and cushions were scattered about, and three rugs covered portions of the plank floor, leaving a good-sized bare area in the center—one that Gresh recognized as a convenient place
for the flying carpet. A spiral stair rose in one corner, and in the far wall two carved wooden doors stood solidly shut.
Gresh had barely had time to look around at the chamber within whena knock sounded on one of the carved doors. “Come in!” Tobas called.
The door swung inward, and a thin old man in an elaboratelyembroidered tunic leaned in. “Lord Tobas?” he asked.
“Yes. All of us, and a guest.”
“His Majesty the king wishes to invite you all to dine with himtonight.”
“Convey my best wishes to His Majesty, and we would be delighted.”
“Is there anything we can do for you in the meanwhile?”
“If you could give us a hand with the luggage, it would be welcome.”
“Of course. I’ll send footmen.” Then the door closed again.
“It’s good to be home!” Alorria said, smiling broadly and lookingaround happily, gently bouncing the baby in her arms.
“It is good to be back,” Karanissa agreed. “Home or not.”
“They seem to have kept it clean,” Tobas said. “I hope no one’sdisturbed my workshop.”
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“I thought you took everything dangerous with you,” Alorria said.
“I did. I still hope no one disturbed it—I want to be able to findthings.”
“I didn’t think you left anything worth finding,” Karanissa said.
“This is your home?” Gresh asked.
All three of the other adults tried to answer simultaneously,Alorria saying “Yes,” Karanissa saying “No,” and Tobas saying, “Whenwe’re in Dwomor.” The two women exchanged looks, and Karanissa added,“It used to be, before we bought the house in Ethshar of the Sands.”
“It still is,” Alorria said, with happy assurance. “We just don’tlive here all the time.”
“It will be again,” Tobas said. “If we find the spriggan mirror anddeal with it successfully.”
That sounded interesting. “Oh?” Gresh said.
Tobas grimaced. “I’m not as smart as you, Gresh—when the Wizards’Guild ordered me to stop the spriggans, I demanded payment, and theyagreed, but I didn’t think of asking for eternal youth. I asked foranother Transporting Tapestry, one that comes out here in Dwomor Keep,so we could come back here permanently. I like being my father-in-law’scourt wizard and don’t really want to live in a big city. They agreedto make one for us—though of course it will take a year or so, and noone’s even started on it yet. There aren’t very many wizards who canmake one, and most of them aren’t willing to put in the time.”
“But when it’s made, you’ll live here again.”
“Yes.” Tobas sighed. “Eternal youth for Alorria and myself wouldhave been clever, but I just didn’t think of it. I’ll just have to hopeI can work my way up to doing it myself eventually.”
“I’m sure you’ll manage it,” Karanissa said.
“Plenty of wizards don’t,” Tobas said.
For a moment silence fell, as no one knew quite what to say, butthen Alris awoke and began crying, and Alorria, cooing and rocking,carried her up the spiral staircase.
“We have the entire tower,” Tobas said. “The bedrooms are the nextfloor up, and my workshop above that.”
Gresh nodded. “Do you get many spriggans here?”
Tobas blinked foolishly at him for a moment. “What?”
“Are there many spriggans in Dwomor? Does your magic attract them tothis tower?”
Tobas glanced upward. “It ought to, oughtn’t it?”
“Does it?”
“Not that I’ve noticed,” Tobas admitted.
“I’ve seen a few here and there in Dwomor,” Karanissa said. “Butthey’re no worse here than in the Hegemony of the Three Ethshars—perhaps not as bad.”
“But the mirror isn’t terribly far from here.”
“Well, we don’t know that....” Tobas began.
“I do,” Gresh interrupted. He was not ready to believe the sprigganhe had interrogated had fooled him as completely as that.
“All right, then,” Tobas said, clearly nettled. “I don’t know whythere aren’t more of them here; there just aren’t.”
Before Gresh could reply there was a knock at the door. Karanissareached over to open it, revealing half a dozen young men in green-andwhite uniforms.
There were several minutes of bustle and confusion as the footmen brought the luggage in from the landing platform and stowed it whereTobas and his wives directed them. Gresh tried to stay out of the way.
“I’m going to dress for dinner,” Alorria announced from the stairs,where she was blocking a footman’s way. He was balanced precariously,holding an immense leather trunk he had been carrying upstairs.
“Good,” Tobas said. “So will I.”
A moment later, when the luggage had all been dealt with, the sixfootmen brought in the carpet itself and spread it on the floor,exactly where Gresh had thought it should go. Then one of them bowed toTobas and asked, “Will there be anything else?”
“No, thank you,” Tobas said. “Very good work, all of you.”
The footman bowed again, and the entire half-dozen quickly exitedthe suite.
“Pardon me a moment, Gresh,” Tobas said. Karanissa was alreadyclimbing the spiral stair, and Tobas followed her, leaving Gresh alonein the sitting room.
He glanced around, then shrugged and sank onto one of the settees.He had no intention of trying to unpack anything here; his mostappropriate change of clothing for dining with a king was well down thebottomless bag. His Majesty Derneth II would just have to put up with aguest in traveling clothes.
He looked around the room again, but saw nothing of particularinterest. No spriggans were in sight.
That was curious, really. If the mirror was generating sprigganssomewhere within a few leagues, and the spriggans just wanderedrandomly, then their population density here should be several timeswhat it was anywhere in the Hegemony, and it plainly wasn’t.
That meant that their wanderings weren’t random. It wasn’t simply anattraction to wizardry that motivated them, because if it were, thenTobas’s workshop would have been overrun with them when he was workingas Dwomor’s court wizard.
Gresh wondered just what was really going on. Were spriggans moreorganized and more intelligent than they appeared? Was there somepattern to their behavior over the past few years? He felt a slightchill at the thought. What if they were not just an infestation, but anactual deliberate invasion? Was it really just a botched casting ofLugwiler’s Haunting Phantasm that had brought them into the World?
Then Karanissa came back down the stairs in a white silk gown thatmade Gresh forget about spriggans and mirrors and spells, not tomention the inconvenient fact that she was married to someone else. He rose quickly and bowed to her.
“You know, after so long in your company on the carpet, I can hearyour thoughts,” she said, pausing at the foot of the stair. “Especiallywhen they’re as clear as they are just now.”
For an instant Gresh hesitated. He did not want to offend a wizard’s wife.
On the other hand, Karanissa could have easily ignored his reaction.She had chosen not to, and that gave Gresh some latitude.
“Then you know there’s nothing I can do to control them,” he repliedwith a smile.
“I know you aren’t even trying. Really, do you feel no shame at allat lusting so blatantly for another man’s wife?”
“None,” Gresh replied. “For three reasons.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. First, you call it blatant, but you’re a witch—would anordinary woman know what I am thinking? Look at my face, rather thanthe thoughts behind it, and I think you’ll see my expression is wellwithin the bounds of mere polite admiration.”
“Ah. You’re right—and you do have a dozen years of practice, don’tyou? And the advice of your sisters, as well.”
“Indeed. Second, lust is a natural and healthy response to a sightsuch as the one before me now. While it is the custom to disguise it inpolite company, I know that it is the disguise that is unnatural, notthe desire.”
“Most men are not as certain of that as you are.”
He nodded an acknowledgment. “You would know that better than I.”
“And your third reason?”
This was the one that had convinced him to be honest. “With all due respect, lady, you would not have put that dress on if you did not wantto provoke lust. The angled neckline, the fit at the hips—that dress isdesigned to inflame men’s hearts, and as a witch you surely know it andchose it for that purpose.”
“Ah, one of your sisters is a seamstress, isn’t she? I hadn’t knownthat.”
“Ekava, the next-to-youngest,” Gresh agreed. “Still a journeyman,but she knows her profession well enough.”
Karanissa glanced upward and stepped away from the stairs as Tobasappeared, hurrying down the spiral. He wore a loose black robe and apointed velvet cap, looking every inch a wizard save for the fact thathe held a sleeping baby in his arms. “Alorria will be down in amoment,” he said, shifting Alris from one elbow to the other andstraightening the lush crimson blanket that now wrapped
her.
Until now Gresh had always seen Alris bundled in white or gray oryellow, if one didn’t count the usual stains and discolorations. Itappeared that tonight even she was dressed up for their dinner with theking. Gresh looked down at his own brown wool tunic and black leatherbreeches and decided they would do well enough—he was a traveler, afterall, and could not be blamed if he looked the part. If they stayed inDwomor for any length of time, and royal suppers were the norm, hemight eventually take the time to dress up, but not tonight.
The three of them stood silently for an awkward moment,; then Tobassaid, “I’ll see what’s keeping Alorria.” He handed Alris to Karanissa,then hurried back up the stairs.
Karanissa watched him go, then looked down at the baby and smiled.She glanced at Gresh.
“She’ll be down soon enough, once she realizes I’m holding herchild,” Karanissa said. “You look fine just as you are; don’t worryabout it.”
“You look...well, ‘fine’ isn’t strong enough,” Gresh replied.
“Thank you.”
Gresh started to form a question, but Karanissa answered before hestarted to speak.
“Ali is a princess here,” she said. “Alris is the king’s grandchild.I prefer not to fade completely into the background. I hope this dresswill work to compete with the two of them.”
“I can’t imagine you fading into the background anywhere,” Greshreplied.
She smiled at him, much as she had at the baby a moment before.“Many men consider me too tall and thin and dark; they prefer theirwomen a little fairer and more rounded, like Ali.”
Gresh’s immediate thought would never, ever have been spoken aloud,but Karanissa was a witch; it didn’t need to be audible.
“Tobas has no fixed preference,” she said softly. “He tries veryhard not to favor one of us over the other. Anything beyond that is none of your business; I say this much only so that I will not betroubled by your curious thoughts any further.”
The Spriggan Mirror Page 12