Kingdom Of Argylle - A Sorcerer And A Gentleman Part 10

Lunete watched him peeling the pear with undue attention. "A known thing? Or just something to amuse you?"

"I know its characteristics; I do not know precisely where it is to be found."

"Oh," Lunete said. "Is it rude to ask such a question?"

Dewar's left brow quirked. "It is not sorcerous etiquette ft. Sorcerer and a (jentteman 99.to ask such a question other than to annoy the questioned party. However, you asked without intention of offense, and so I answered. Be warned I'll say no more of it."

"I beg your pardon-"

"Granted already." And he smiled at her, that broad, brilliant smile which through some curious trick of perception Lunete felt at the base of her spine.

Lunete smiled and blushed a little again. "So you will be leaving soon."

"I have no fixed itinerary," Dewar said. "If you are uncomfortable with my presence in your house or your demesne, I shall not impose a moment longer on your kindness-"

"I didn't mean that at all," Lunete interrupted him, leaning forward. "No, no. You are welcome as long as you care to stay, and I say so sincerely."

"I still don't know," replied Dewar, smiling merrily, with such a mischievous, teasing look that Lunete laughed outright.

10.ARIEL HAD GATHERED A COLLECTION OF fallen leaves, bright- colored and dark, all different, and whirled them up and down in a column, rattling them on the ground as they struck, then spiralling them up again in a circle. There were wild winds and gusts about, too, swooping up drifting leaves and gra.s.ses and blowing them against the stone and wooden walls of the buildings cl.u.s.tered at the bank of the river opposite Prospero's island. Ariel had cleared the weather for Prospero last night, and the morning was a hard, cold bright one, the mud stiffened with frost, the gra.s.ses and stubble bleached into winter. The hard ground was good for men to walk on, Prospero had said. The cold air kept them moving briskly. When Prospero commanded, later, Ariel would move them briskly in their s.h.i.+ps. The men who must travel that day were arranged in neat 100.WUfey square patterns over the tide-bared beaches a few miles from Ariel's sporting-place, at the mouth of the river. Carrying their weapons and packs, they had marched there in rows and columns in the infant hours of the day and had begun embarking there, row by row, orderly and in good time, climbing into boats, shoving them off the beach, and rowing out to their moored s.h.i.+ps through the calm sea, a forest of masts bobbing offsh.o.r.e now with faces turned sh.o.r.eward below the rigging. Another crowd stood apart from the array of men, a compact ma.s.s of women, a few men, and children. They were quiet; there were no cheers, nor marching music, nor banners nor parting shouts, a silence which bothered Prospero. An army should set forth in good heart, he thought, should bear with it the confidence of its home, and these gloomy faces were no meet farewell.

Prospero stood apart from both these groups, watching the embarkation with one eye, the other on his daughter and his Seneschal before him.

"I am loth to leave thee, Scudamor," said Prospero, "yet must I, and think not that 'tis for any lack in thee; rather for thy strengths that will guide the folk here in the work I must leave, unfinished, in thy charge." Prospero had left behind a handful of adult men. The oldest of the boy-children, grown now and sprouting beard-fuzz, were in the army; the others stayed, with the women and girls, to carry forward (slowly, Prospero knew) the project of the city walls under Scudamor's direction.

"Master, I shall not fail you."

"Do not. I know thy ability; let not thy will fall short of it." He looked piercingly at Scudamor, who was square-bodied and dark-bearded, dignified in loose belted robes of blue-grey wool and an undyed grey woollen cloak. Satisfied, Prospero glanced over the handful of others who hovered some few paces away and fixed on Freia.

Her oppressed look and silence angered him; she had infected many of the women, and some of the men, with her worries about his enterprise before he commanded her hold her tongue, but the damage had been done and doubt sown among them where only confidence had flourished before.

SI Sorcerer and a Qentteman 101.

Now she stood like a road-pillar, wrapped in a stained old cloak and a fraying shawl.

"Freia."

She tore her gaze from the boats and s.h.i.+ps and said, nearly whispering, "Don't go, Papa."

He made a sign to her, to follow him apart from the others, and they walked over the loose sand to a serpentine, silvery trunk of driftwood. "Thou knowest better than to oppose my will, daughter," he told her, looking down into her eyes.

Freia stared up at him an instant only, then turned her face down, away. She nodded.

"Do not abandon these folk, whom I leave in thy care. Ill to them shall be ill for thee."

"I don't want . . ."

"What now?" he demanded sharply.

"Papa, please don't go. I cannot imagine you not here. It's so far away. What if you cannot come back?" Freia looked up at him again, so pleading, so sad, that Prospero was softened: he knew her devotion to him was bone-deep, blood-strong, despite her youthful rebellions and tempers. This time, he left her behind, for an indefinite time, and she was frightened.

"How now, Puss. I must go, and I shall go." Prospero squeezed her shoulder. "Hast thou not coursed unmarked, unseen wildernesses, faced beasts never met by man before, brought thy gryphon to heel o' thy will and heart alone? This time must thou be brave enough to stand thy ground: to stay here. Thou'rt strong in body, strong in mind, too strong to tremble at my leaving thee for a time. I have gone away before, and returned: and so shall it happen again."

"When? How long?"

"I do not know," he said, "but if my plans fall out as I intend, ere two winters come again to Argylle. But do not reckon overmuch on that, Freia: for the Well is disturbed and all runs warped and unruly from it, so that time is crooked. When I've claimed the Orb for mine, there'll be urgent tasks to complete and vows to fulfill."

"Will you not let me go with you? Please, Papa. I will 102 -=>.

bring Trixie. I will help you if you want me to. She's very fierce; she can fight for you. And I can help, can't I?"

"No," he said. "No. I command thee, Freia, to stay here. Do not seek to follow me, do not try to send thy gryphon after me."

"I found her for you, Papa . . ." Freia's voice failed her. Her disappointment and frustration brought tears to her eyes. "I kept her especially for your war!"

"I thank thee. It was most generously done. But a dozen gryphons, fierce though they seem to thee, will not make Landuc quail. 'Twill take more familiar threats. I have my plans already, and no call for gryphons." He veiled his amus.e.m.e.nt; truly, it touched his heart that she had gone to such labors for him. "And while I am gone, do thou attend to the folk here, be good, be a Lady as I have taught thee. Promise me."

Too dispirited to argue, Freia said, "I will, Papa. -Are you going to bring her here, Lady Miranda?"

"Mayhap. 'Tis early for such plans. Til not tempt Fortune by such speculation." Prospero turned away, watched a group of soldiers clambering into a rowboat and pus.h.i.+ng off.

"Papa." Freia put her hand on his arm.

He looked at her; her face had changed from uncertain child to watchful woman, as sometimes happened of late. She was maturing at last, pushed out of long childhood by the pressure of the times, Prospero thought. When he returned, he must see about settling her. There were men enough willing here, but he harbored better plans for her. "Puss."

"My friend Cledie- I told her about Miranda, and she wondered, we wondered, if you brought her here, would she not miss her family?"

Prospero had never yet met Freia's friend Cledie, who was one of the folk who had wandered into the forest in the first few days after the transformation. Freia mentioned her name only occasionally. "There's but her father left her, Freia, if he lives yet."

"Then if you brought her family, her father then, also, Sorcerer and a (jentteman 103.

you would not need to go away to Landuc again, would you?" Freia's head was c.o.c.ked to one side, her eyes missing no nuance of his expression.

Startled, Prospero stared at her, at once annoyed and charmed. "Thou'rt transparent yet in thy persuasions, little diplomat," he said, with a rush of tenderness. He bent and folded her in his arms, then lifted her, a strong tight embrace: she was dear to him, he knew it in his heart. "And I shall not promise thee anything of the sort, but I will not wed without thee knowing oft, I do promise that."

Freia sighed when he put her down, resigned. She had not expected any argument to turn aside Prospero's plans, but she had wanted to try, hoping (she knew) vainly for a miracle.

Prospero watched his men embark. Freia stood beside him, her hands tucked through his arm, hugging it. When the time came for him to go, climbing into the last boat, she kissed him on both cheeks and was kissed, without tears; as brave, Freia thought, as Lady Miranda could ever have been.

The Emperor of Landuc waited to receive a guest with whom he had had, in all the time of his reign, no previous dealings, and with whom he would have preferred to have none. He sat in the Small Formal Reception Room, attended by only his six highest ministers, Count Pallgrave, and also Cremmin, and waited for the herald to come in and announce her. A winter-toothed autumn wind rattled the tall windows; the Emperor, disliking the clatter, turned to his secretary and told him to see that the windows did not rattle in the future. Cremmin bowed and made a note.

Her arrival was precipitous and unexpected, but this was characteristic. She came, the messenger had said, in a chariot drawn by black goatlike animals with long horns; the messenger had preceded her to the Palace by minutes, and the Emperor had instantly broken off his audience with the new Amba.s.sadors to be sent to two tributary nations in Pheyarcet, away on the Road. He had rushed into a more formal robe and rushed to the formal room with his Lords 104.

*Efizatieth of this and that, Count Pallgrave, the rival Barons Broul and Cashallar, and his brother Prince Fulgens, who had been in the conference with him.

There were very few people for whom the Emperor would rush to do anything.

"Lady Oriana," the herald said, bowing deeply, knee bent.

Lady Oriana, tall, cloaked from head to foot in ice-blue satin and white fur, entered slowly and stood, examining the Emperor with eyes the color of her cloak.

"Greetings, Your Majesty," she said.

"Welcome, Lady Oriana," he lied.

Her mouth moved very slightly: perhaps a smile, a Sphinx's smile. Conscious of the effect she created, she moved forward a few steps. "Your Palace has grown since your accession," she commented. She had not received an invitation to the attendant festivities, a conspicuous discourtesy after her close and extensive dealings with the late King.

The Emperor inclined his head, accepting it as a compliment. "As has our Empire," he said.

"And in much the same way. Yes, Landuc is larger now than when Your Majesty took the Orb of Pheyarcet and the Scepter of the Well; it is larger than in Panurgus's day; but it is not so large as it was a few days since." Her smile widened very slightly.

"What does this mean, Lady Oriana?" the Emperor asked, showing no concern.

She looked from him to his courtiers and her eyebrows moved a hair's-width upward. The Emperor narrowed his eyes.

"Your journey," he said, "has doubtless been arduous; some refreshment perhaps would be welcome. Let us retire to a more congenial place for such a collation as might please your ladys.h.i.+p."

Oriana's smile widened as she bowed her head fractionally in agreement. Cremmin, at the rear of the a.s.sembled peers, scurried through the back door to carry out the Emperor's implied order. The Emperor rose and left the throne, Sorcerer and a Qentkman 105.

bowed to the sorceress, and offered her his arm. She was half a head taller than he, and looked down at him with that same weighing, calculating expression before setting her hand very lightly on his arm and accompanying him through the side door.

They went to the Gold Salon, three doors down the white-and-gold corridor. The Emperor dismissed the peers with a glance; Pallgrave began to follow and was given a pointed glance of his own, so that the Count stopped abruptly in the doorway and backed out, graceless, to close it. Within, the Emperor seated the sorceress on a sofa upholstered with gold-flecked red velvet and took a gilded chair at right angles to her.

"It is never wise to ask a sorcerer what is meant," Oriana said, still scrutinizing him, "unless one ts prepared to know the answer."

"Your comment begs for clarification, madame."

"My comment," she said, "would, to some, require none."

"To say to an Emperor, that his Empire is not so large as it was a few days past, is to either insult him or tease him," the Emperor said, leaning back. "Clearly you have some information about the realm for which you think we would trade with you."

"Your Majesty has, of course, let it be known that you will not deal with sorcerers. If you verily have no interest in my information, which I flatter myself is of the variety in which monarchs generally take great interest, then there is no need for clarification."

The door opened and three liveried servants entered and set out, with efficient haste, trays of canapes, cold meats, and fruits, three chilled bottles of various light wines and one of a heavy sweet red. During their half-minute intrusion, neither the Emperor nor the sorceress spoke.

The Emperor suggested one of the wines and, on Lady Oriana's slight nod, poured gla.s.ses for them both. He was on the horns of a dilemma: he did not like sorcerers, did not want to do business of any kind with them, but Oriana's abilities to divine and see and foretell were legendarily accu- 106.

*EfizaBetfi 1?itte.y rate, and Panurgus had used her. If she knew something about his Empire-something about it shrinking or being smaller-it was of acute importance that he know what it was, the sooner the better. The Well might do anything, in its present sullen state.

Yet, he thought, anything to do with his Empire would certainly come to his attention. What value could he place on having the information sooner? She had struck hard and peculiar bargains with the late King Panurgus, and the Emperor preferred to remain out of the webs of sorcery, unenc.u.mbered by vows, outside interests, and hidden clauses.

"Madame," he said, "one must distinguish between curiosity and interest. We are curious about your remark. We have, however, no interest in and no intention of transacting any bargain for further information related to it or any matter."

Lady Oriana lifted her bright coppery brows slightly. "Very well," she said, and sipped her wine.

The sorceress departed an hour after arriving. She drove her black beasts from the Palace to the Gate of Winds and pa.s.sed unchallenged through that portal of the City of Lan-duc. Veiled and hooded, she smiled to herself as she went along a Ley and made her way to the Road at a Blood-Gate. She had had her information for two days, but had delayed her journey until she knew she would be able to enter and leave Landuc quickly. Today was a favorable one for travel; many of the Gates regulating the Road were pa.s.sable, and so she made good time, spinning along in her chariot. She gave no notice to the faint outlines of superimposed cities and hills, forests and oceans, villages and wastes, as they slid past; her black beasts, blinkered and accustomed to such use, pulled the chariot and hurried their hooves along to the broad plain where Oriana dwelt.

The Castle of Gla.s.s was surrounded by a deep, glittering empty moat and a high, slick greenish wall ornamented by pale hollow objects whose empty eyes looked out in every direction from the Castle. In the milky-white paved courtyard, two sere and wrinkled men took the chariot and beasts Sorcerer and a (jentkman 107.

from their mistress, bowing obsequiously.

Lady Oriana refreshed herself on entering her residence, then went to her highest workroom, where a tall mirror stood in a pivoting, swivelling silver frame. The mirror, curiously, was not smooth; its surface was rippled, composed of many smail, rounded lenses, and it was not silver, holding instead fragments of scenes, of colors, of shapes caught among the myriad lenses. The mirror was a relic of the early days of Pheyarcet, forged before Panurgus had utterly dominated the Well; it too looked out in every direction from the Castle.

She performed certain necessary preliminaries and looked on the scene it showed her: the Emperor Avril and the Empress Glencora in a box at a theatre.

Oriana dismissed the image for another.

This showed her a city beside a grey, stormy sea. Outside the city walls, a plain stretched, and on the plain there was encamped an army. In the city's harbor, s.h.i.+ps rode at anchor, a great navy, and from their masts fluttered banners bearing a device which was not the silver octagon on crimson usually seen on Landuc's vessels.

The image burst apart into prismatic shards. Oriana started back, alarmed, and began a sweeping gesture with her hands.

"Ah. Lady Oriana," said the man whose image coalesced to replace that of the city and harbor. His mouth, framed by a neatly-pointed dark beard and moustache, smiled, yet there was no coloring of the smile in his voice. He wore a plain blue-black doublet without jewelry or ornamentation, and his bearing and expression were those of authority.

"Your Highness," she said, collected again, and curtseyed, perhaps mockingly.

" 'Ware thy step, fair Oriana," said the man. He was seated before a dark drapery, a detailless background which gave no hint of his location. "We've rubbed along harmoniously in the past. Twere regrettable that I be forced to some measure we'd both find painful to dance."

She laughed. "Your brother is a fool, Prince Prospero."

"That's debatable, depending on which thou speakest 108.

'Etizajjetfi "Wittey of," Prospero said, drawing on a pipe whose bowl was carved and painted to resemble a curling-horned ram.

"As long as your brother is a fool," Oriana replied, disregarding the other's unconcealed contempt, "we two, you and I, may continue in our present courteous relations. I will tell you a thing, Prince Prospero: I would rather see the Orb and the Well in your hands than Avril's; Pheyarcet prospers not in these days of his lame, blinkered rule."

"That reined you not from calling on him," murmured Prospero, fixing her with his eyes.

"He is a fool," she said again.

"He refused to cheapen Empire for sorcery."

"Yes," she admitted.

"I could have told you 'twould be thus." Prospero smiled. "Ill-judged of him." He looked at her for a long half-minute, saying nothing. "Last time," he said, exhaling smoke, " 'twas Esclados played Pandarus, tendering tidings to Avril-tidings which he bought from you, for Esclados can barely see his own face in a mirror."

Oriana's eyes narrowed. She began to speak and stopped.

"This time," Prospero went on reflectively, "you'd sell without his agency. Thy fair-faced flattery offends me, O Lady who dwells in the Castle of Gla.s.s, and it reminds me thou'rt treacherous as a Salamander unbound." He put the stem of his pipe between his teeth again.

Oriana smiled tightly. "I will also remind you that I keep my word," she said.

"That is true. When you are bought you are bought, an the fee be high enough and cunningly entailed," He blew a ring of bluish smoke, which tinted itself rosy slowly as it dissipated.

"I would be pleased to conclude some bargain with you which would serve us both advantageously," Oriana said. "For example, to know how you detected my Summoning of Vision toward Ith.e.l.lin."

He snorted, smiling unamiably. "Doubt not that you would that, yet I'd not purchase privacy at such a rate. I compliment you on your subtlety and efficiency, Lady Oriana. Your work presses at the very boundaries of our Sorcerer and a (jentteman 109.

Art, o'ershadowing them. However, mine presses at other boundaries. Twere regrettable for your Art to stunt mine. I think they cannot be consonant."