The Raven Ring

by Patricia C. Wrede

  She began with a series of controlled stretches, holding each position for a long moment before moving fluidly into the next. She repeated the sequence four times, increasing her speed slowly with each repetition, then went on into more strenuous moves. Sand crunched under her boots as she kicked and leaped and spun. The three days since her last practice had allowed her muscles to get a thorough rest without beginning to grow soft, and everything felt deceptively easy. Though she knew she would regret it next day if she pushed herself too hard, Eleret could not resist doing a few combinations—leap and roll, fall and rising punch, spin-kick and drop-dodge. It felt good to work; her only regret was her lack of a sparring partner.

  Around her, the household began to stir. A window scraped open above her; Eleret spun and ducked as if it were a known threat. Two women carrying water jars walked across the yard and gave her curious, sidelong glances. They, too, became an unwitting part of Eleret’s drill. She kept on until she felt herself beginning to slow. Although she could have continued for another ten or fifteen minutes, and would have, had she been at home, she reduced her efforts. There was no sense in working herself tired when later in the day she might be attacked by the shapeshifter, or Maggen, or more Syaski.

  As she started into her closing stretches, Eleret saw Daner watching her from the near doorway. How long had he been there? She dismissed the thought and concentrated on her work; the ending stretches were as important as the opening ones. Finally, feeling loose and pleasantly tired, Eleret brushed the dusting of sand from her clothes and stepped off the practice ground.

  Daner came forward at once. “Impressive,” he said as he reached her side. His eyes were admiring, but all he said was, “I don’t have to ask whether you’ve caught yourself an appetite.”

  “Yes, I was just going to ask about that breakfast you mentioned.”

  “It’s ready and waiting upstairs. Along with Aunt Kistran; she was up early, so I thought I would hook her now, while there aren’t a lot of people around to ask awkward questions.”

  Eleret did a quick mental review of the previous night’s events. “That’s right, your cousin suggested we talk to her about Jonystra’s cards. Do you think she’ll mind?”

  “Mind? She’s happier than an oyster-fisher with a bucket of pearls. She loves giving advice.”

  “Good.” Eleret smiled at Daner’s expression. “It’s always good to have information, and I don’t have to follow the advice.”

  Daner nodded and smiled warmly in return. “Very true, Freelady. And you have an advantage over us relations: You won’t have to explain later why you didn’t do as she suggested. Shall we go?”

  TWENTY

  IN SPITE OF THE fact that there were only three of them at the long breakfast table, Vallaniri meal-servers descended on them in hordes the moment Eleret took her seat. Their offerings included a large bowl of steamed clams, a platter of soft white cheese mixed with herbs, hot bread, plums preserved in wine, cold sliced beef, and several things Eleret did not recognize. Sternly suppressing an unexpected longing for a plain bowl of porridge, Eleret took a little cheese and some bread, and what her mother had called “tasting samples” of the other foods.

  Lady Kistran had already heaped her plate with clams and a thick green paste studded with chunks of something white. As Daner and Eleret finished choosing their meals, she smiled at Eleret and said, “Daner tells me you have some questions about your cards, Freelady.”

  Eleret nodded. “Especially since the charting was…interrupted so spectacularly.”

  “Yes, Baroja told me.” Lady Kistran separated one clam from the rest and inspected it. “How far into the chart did the Luck-seer get?”

  “She was just starting on El—Freelady Salven’s future,” Daner said. “That’s what is worrying us. There were eleven cards left to turn, and after things calmed down we found eleven with singe marks. We think Jonystra was trying to influence what is going to happen, and I was hoping you could give us an idea what she had in mind.”

  “Possibly.” Lady Kistran sounded as if there were not a shred of doubt in her mind. “Since all of the cards involve the future, I should be able to get a general sense of where the reading was going. They would have more significance if you could determine their intended order, of course.”

  “I think I already have a general sense of the reading,” Daner said. Eleret frowned, mildly annoyed by the way Daner had taken over the conversation. Lady Kistran is his aunt, she reminded herself, but could not keep from adding, Still, it’s my cards they’re discussing.

  “The singed cards were all bad ones,” Daner went on. “Silence, Death, Despair, Chaos, War, Night—”

  Lady Kistran snorted expressively. Daner broke off and gave her an inquiring look. Caught in mid-mouthful, his aunt could only make a disapproving face and shake her head.

  “I assure you, Aunt, I’m not mistaken.” Daner frowned uncertainly. “Would you like to see the cards?”

  Shaking her head again, Lady Kistran swallowed. “No, that’s quite unnecessary. Unless it was an unusual deck?”

  “I don’t think so—”

  “Then it doesn’t matter. What I was attempting to convey is that the cards you named are not necessarily bad cards.”

  “Well, I’m sure Jonystra didn’t intend anything good,” Eleret said.

  “That’s as may be, but if she meant you ill, she chose an odd set of cards.” Lady Kistran set down her eating knife and tapped the table with her forefinger. “If you’d ever bothered to study their meanings, Daner, you’d have seen it yourself. Silence, for instance—that’s for waiting, preparation, and possibilities. Or Chaos. Only an amateur would deliberately include Chaos in a chart she was trying to influence. Chaos is a card of complete unpredictability and uncontrolled change; it would be just as likely to disrupt the charter’s plans as help them. And Death is for an important choice—something life-changing, but not necessarily bad. Some of the cards you named are unfavorable ones, certainly, but not all by any means.”

  “I think I see,” Eleret said. “They all sound sinister, though.”

  “Maybe that’s it,” Daner said, frowning. “Maybe Jonystra chose them by their names, to intimidate you, instead of by their meanings.”

  “That doesn’t explain—” Eleret stopped. Daner’s theory didn’t explain the warning she had received from her ring, but she didn’t want to mention that in front of Lady Kistran. Too many people knew about the ring already.

  “It’s also possible that the woman was not as good a Luck-seer as she pretended,” Lady Kistran said. “What did she tell you about the cards she did chart?”

  “I don’t think we need to go into that,” Daner said as he cut one of the plums into small pieces. “If she was no good, the chart won’t mean anything anyway, and—”

  “No, no, the competence—or incompetence—of the Luck-seer has nothing to do with the accuracy of the cards.” Lady Kistran shook her head. “Really, Daner, I’m surprised at you. With all the interest your sisters take, I’d expected you to be better informed.”

  “I’ve been busy with other things, Aunt.”

  Lady Kistran sniffed. “I can imagine. Fortunately, it is never too late to learn. If you’ll tell me what you remember of your chart, Freelady Salven, I can—”

  “Excuse me,” Daner said, rising. “Father wanted me to let him know how the spell-casting went last night. He’ll be up now, and I shouldn’t keep him waiting. My apologies, Freelady, Aunt.”

  It sounded like a thin excuse to Eleret, but Lady Kistran only nodded. “Apology accepted. Another time, have a better memory for your duties.”

  Uncertainly, Eleret pushed her seat away from the table and stood up. Daner shook his head at her. “There’s no need for you to come with me, Freelady. Father and I will be discussing…technical details. I’m sure you’d prefer to stay and talk to my aunt.” It’s definitely an excuse, then, Eleret thought as she resumed her seat. He doesn’t want to sit through his aunt’s scold
ing, even if she has something to say that’s worth hearing. She couldn’t blame him, though. She’d felt the same way about Uncle Arlim’s lectures on the virtues of Sadorthan dual-weapon fighting. Well, if Lady Kistran’s explanations became too irritating, Eleret could find her own excuse to leave.

  “Now, Freelady, can you remember the cards of your chart, in order?” Lady Kistran said as Daner bowed and left the room. “And what the Luck-seer told you?”

  “Do you want her exact words, or would you prefer a summary?”

  “As exact as you can manage, Freelady,” Lady Kistran said with a small smile.

  Eleret considered for a moment. “As I lay out your chart, think for the fourth and final time of the question you would have answered.’”

  Lady Kistran blinked. “What?”

  “It’s what Jonystra said. And then, ‘First comes your past, from support to opposition,’ and she turned up the first card, it was a picture of a mountain with a road at the bottom. She said, The Mountain is the base of your support; it stands for security, but also for unused potential.’ The second card—”

  “A moment.” Lady Kistran shook her head as if to clear it. “Security and unused potential—that’s all she mentioned?”

  “I gave you her words.”

  “Yes, yes, you have a remarkable memory. It just…if the Mountain was your first card… But perhaps it was because of the position.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

  “Every card has many meanings, and every card influences the others in a chart. A good card-charter will choose the meanings that fit best with the other cards in a chart, but it’s very unusual for a charter to be selective with the meanings of the first card. Since there are no other cards, as yet, to influence it.”

  It took a moment for Eleret to absorb Lady Kistran’s meaning. “What did she leave out?”

  “The Mountain also means ‘a difficult but rewarding task.’ Of course, it usually turns up closer to the center, or in the quadrants of the future, and—”

  Lady Kistran went into an involved explanation of the significance the Mountain generally had in other positions and the various ways it could be modified. Since Eleret had no interest in any of them, she listened with half her attention and devoted the other half to her breakfast. “A difficult but rewarding task” certainly fit her reason for coming to Ciaron, but she could not think of any sinister motive that might have led Jonystra not to mention it.

  Eventually, Lady Kistran finished and asked about the next card. “The Lady of Flames,” Eleret said, and a shiver ran down her back. It had looked so like her mother… She pulled herself together and recited Jonystra’s interpretation. Lady Kistran nodded approval and asked for the next card.

  “‘The Seven of Feathers. A card of obstacles, in the position of the beginning of obstacles. Temptation and illusion lie in your past.’”

  Lady Kistran frowned. “That’s all she said?”

  “Yes. Did she leave something out again?”

  “Quite a lot, I would say. The Sevens are all cards of temptation, illusion, and obstacles, but the Seven of Feathers specifically relates to lack of information. It is inexcusable for her not to have mentioned that, since this is one of the cards at the base of your difficulties.”

  Lack of information had certainly been one of Eleret’s biggest problems since her arrival in Ciaron. “She said that was in the past…”

  “The cards of the past affect the cards of the future,” Lady Kistran said sharply. “Unless of course you do something to change the situation, which is the whole point of reading a chart. And if you haven’t been given a proper interpretation, you may very well do more harm than good when you try to change things.”

  Eleret held her face in an expression of polite attention, though she felt like rolling her eyes in exasperation. So far, neither Jonystra’s original interpretation nor Lady Kistran’s revised version had provided her with grounds for action—at least, not for any action she would not have taken anyway. Lady Kistran studied her for a moment. Then, satisfied that her words had struck home, she said, “And the last card of the first row—what was it, and what did she tell you?”

  “‘The Mage Trump. The source of opposition, the hidden—’”

  “The Mage what?” Lady Kistran broke in, frowning.

  “The Mage Trump,” Eleret repeated. “Is something wrong?”

  “There’s no such card,” Lady Kistran said. “Not that I’ve ever heard of, not even in the Western Hand variation of the deck. What did it look like?”

  Eleret pictured the card in her mind. “A…person in a hooded robe, standing in the shadows beside a table. On the table there was a broken feather, a burned-out candlestick, a—”

  “Oh, of course,” Lady Kistran said. “The Shadow-Mage.” She looked at Eleret curiously. “You must have a serious difficulty indeed, to have that card turn up as the source of your opposition.”

  Shadow-Mage…no, don’t jump to conclusions. Carefully, Eleret set down her eating knife, and in a voice she hoped sounded normal she said, “Tell me about this card.”

  “It’s one of the sixteen Major Trumps, and therefore very powerful,” Lady Kistran said. “And it’s not just a bad card, like Betrayal or the fives in the suits. The Shadow-Mage is one of the few cards that can represent something evil, though it’s relatively rare for that to happen. Still, even the usual meanings—”

  “Why is it called the Shadow-Mage?”

  Lady Kistran gave her a reproving look, but answered. “I believe the name comes out of a group of old stories—ancient, actually, they go back to before the old Estarren Alliance was even founded, or so the minstrels say. They refer to evil creatures called Shadow-born, and—Good heavens, you’ve gone white as a slice of boiled cod! Is something wrong?”

  Eleret hardly heard the question. Shadow-born. The nightmare creatures that haunted the oldest Cilhar tales and lurked at the root of their darkest fears. Shadow-born. The insubstantial, deathless things that stole others’ bodies and consumed them from inside. They had been confined for all time in secret places at the end of the Wars of Binding, so the tales said, and nowadays few Cilhar would openly admit to believing in their existence. But the tales continued to be told and retold, and no one tolerated the smallest change in their wording. And I thought the Shee were legends, before I came to Ciaron and met Climeral. If the best things from the old tales are real, why not the worst as well? But what could she do if the Shadow-born were behind her troubles?

  “Freelady Salven! Are you unwell?” Lady Kistran’s insistent voice penetrated at last, and Eleret shook herself.

  “I’m…all right.”

  “You don’t look it. I should have warned you about the clams, they sometimes give me a turn this early in the day.” Lady Kistran paused. “Would you prefer to continue our discussion later?”

  “No!” Seeing Lady Kistran’s startled expression, Eleret forced a smile and said in a more moderate tone, “I don’t think I want any more to eat, but I would very much like to just…sit and listen for a while.” If there were any more surprises in her chart, she wanted to know about them now.

  “As you will have it.” Lady Kistran sat back, studying her. Then she gave an approving nod. “Yes, I think you’re wise. Bad enough that your Luck-seer was misinterpreting your cards; worse yet to have your charting broken off in the middle. There’s certainly no need to compound matters by stopping our discussion now. What was your next card?”

  “The Priest of Flames,” Eleret said automatically. “And then the Two of Stones. Jonystra said—”

  “Just tell me the cards, Freelady,” Lady Kistran said. “Spare me the Luck-seer’s distortions. The Priest of Flames—a good card, but not a strong one. He supports you, but he does not realize his own power to help.” She closed her eyes, as if trying to picture something in her mind. “And he is in the cross-diagonal position from the Lady of Flames, so he does not work actively with her. A pity; they would make a
good combination.

  “The Two of Stones represents opposites in a stable balance, or evenly matched. Since it’s in a supporting position, it may refer to differing advice, or two actions that cancel each other out.”

  Or two people who are opposites? Eleret thought of Daner and Karvonen, and almost smiled.

  “The next card?” Lady Kistran prompted.

  “The Mage of Flames, reversed.”

  “Unusual to have so many court cards of the same suit, so early in a chart,” Lady Kistran said, frowning. “The Mage of Flames, reversed…a man of power and intelligence, who uses both for destructive ends. And the power of the Shadow-Mage supports him. That is an extremely bad combination. I would be very careful, if I were you.”

  “I’m always careful.” Eleret hesitated. “The Mage of Flames and the Shadow-Mage—could they be the same person?”

  “Unlikely.” Lady Kistran tapped her finger on the tabletop, as if she were tapping the face of a card. “If they were the same person, I’d expect them to be stacked, one above the other, not on the close diagonal. Also, the outer cards, like the Shadow-Mage, represent influences, not necessarily direct involvement. The Mage of Flames is an inner card, so he’s probably someone you’ve encountered recently.”

  Mobrellan, Eleret thought. “The last card in that row was the Three of Shells, reversed.”

  “Unexpected loss and emotional pain. You must be careful not to let it influence your decisions too closely.”

  That was more or less what Jonystra had said. “The last two cards were the Three of Flames and the Demon,” Eleret said. “Then the Luck-seer…broke off the charting.”

  “Three of Flames—unexpected actions. Something surprising will happen, which may lead to an opportunity for you. The Demon—” Lady Kistran shook her head. “Generally it refers to limitations, particularly unexpected ones, but it can also mean a surprise that leads to loss. That would cancel out the Three of Flames, which makes very little sense.” She tapped her fingers against the table again. “I wish we knew the rest of your chart. I don’t suppose…”