The Mage Wars

by Mercedes Lackey

  “I hope you haven’t emptied White Gryphon of every competent Silver there,” Amberdrake protested. “We can’t bring an army in here, either!”

  Skan shook his head. “Only asked for a couple of them who are as long in talon or tooth as we are—even if I haven’t got any teeth—and a couple of youngsters who never saw fighting against Ma’ar but proved themselves since. Judeth’s entire contingent won’t number more than ten. Enough to be useful, not so many as to be a burden or get in the way. If we have to cut our way out and run, we’d better not have too many people to keep track of.”

  Amberdrake nodded agreement. “I suppose that’s all I needed to hear, then, if that’s all you said and did.” He squinted tiredly against the sunlight.

  Skan chuckled. No point in telling Amberdrake about the “no questioning allowed, this is orders,” attitude he’d taken with the folks back home. What would the point be, after all? Amberdrake would only worry about his “image,” and he frankly didn’t care about his “image” at the moment.

  And no point in telling him about Kechaia, either, he thought with a pang.

  The little misborn had been unhappy that her “Papa Skan” had been away so long, and even more unhappy when she sensed the worry in the others as Skan issued his orders. He had spent quite a bit of time Mindspeaking only to her before he went to sleep.

  I tried to tell her that everything was fine. I tried to reassure her. He thought he’d been very convincing, but then again, it wasn’t too hard to convince Kechara of much of anything. She believed him because she was Kechara, and she believed in everyone and everything.

  He’d told her how proud he was of her, praised her for her hard work in watching all of them from such a great distance. Judeth had told him about that—how Kechara had decided all on her own to keep a watchful eye on all of them, touching their surface thoughts several times a day without them ever being aware of it. He was only grateful that purest chance had caused her to pick times when none of them had been worried about their situation.

  Then she had to ask me when Father Urtho was coming back, and if he was with me here. That had given him a serious wrench, although he’d managed to cover it without her noticing.

  So far as Kechara knew, her “Father” was still alive, somewhere, doing something vague but important. No one had ever tried to tell her anything to the contrary. The deception made her happy, after all—and in a sense, that was probably just what Urtho, or Urtho’s spirit, was doing.

  Besides, no one was entirely sure she understood what death meant—and if she didn’t know, no one wanted to be the one to tell her.

  I had to tell her he wasn’t with me, and that I didn’t know when he’d be back. Sketi, I’m not altogether certain that I’m going to be back. How could I tell her that!

  He had tried to prepare her—if anyone could prepare simple little Kechara for such a terrible revelation—that sometimes people went away and didn’t come back again. He’d meant Urtho, but—well—he could only hope and pray that it wasn’t going to apply to him…

  Damn it, it’s not going to apply to any of us!

  Amberdrake yawned hugely, then apologized, covering his mouth with his hand. “Skan, I’m tired, and I’m going back inside; frankly, the less I show of myself, the more people are going to talk, and that’s good for us right now. So I’m going to get some sleep. The Morning Court can proceed without me. I wouldn’t be popular there today anyway. But tell Leyuet about this as soon as you can.”

  Skan ruefully regarded the arrow in his talons. “Given that the skies seem to be more than a bit dangerous today, I probably ought to do the same, at least as far as going back inside and not doing any more flying today goes,” he admitted. “I wish I could have spotted the archer. I think I’m strong enough now to lift a struggling body—or a dead one. Just—watch your back for me. Tell Gesten about this.”

  “Gesten already knows,” said a rasping, humorless voice from inside the room, in tones of disgust. “You didn’t think you’d get away with me not finding out, did you?”

  “Hardly,” Skan snorted. “You are the Emperor of all busy-bodies, the King of eavesdroppers. I would never even dream of having a conversation you didn’t manage to overhear. I hold all my conversations assuming you will be lurking behind a curtain or beneath a piece of furniture.” Then, since he seldom got the last word in any such exchange with the hertasi, he took advantage of the situation and vaulted lightly over to the next balcony, his own, before Gesten could manage to form a reply.

  Behind him, he heard Gesten giving Amberdrake a healthy piece of his mind, and chuckled with relief. Now there is one danger I am glad to avoid! Gesten’s tongue is worse than all the arrows in the Haighlei arsenal!

  * * *

  Amberdrake woke for the second time that morning, this time when Winterhart came back in from attending Morning Court in her new role as Consort-To-Be. He stretched with care, and sat up, feeling much the better for the few extra hours of sleep.

  She had dressed very carefully for Morning Court, and the transformation she had undergone while he was asleep was amazing. She looked spectacular.

  The amber silk gown she wore had been altered slightly, enough to make it into something of a compromise between a northern costume and Haighlei robes. Bands of geometric applique in white and gold had been applied to the wide sleeves and the hem, although there was no matching band at the collar the way a Haighlei costume would have been adorned. Instead, the gold and amber Betrothal Necklace took the place of such a decoration. Her hair had been put up in an intricate arrangement of braids with one of the Lion Lilies nestled in the front, and she wore bracelets matching the Betrothal Necklace around her wrists and a belt of amber plaques carved in lions’ heads at her waist. She looked like a statue of marble and golden amber, and not human at all.

  Some of the strain she was under showed in the serene expression she wore; the worse she felt, the more like a statue she looked.

  “So it’s official?” he asked, as she sat down on the side of the bed beside him. “Is that where the bracelets and belt came from?”

  She nodded and sighed, fingering the heavy gold of the bracelets. “The rumor is that I have abandoned you for your terrible crimes, even though nothing has been proved against you yet. I, of course, have said nothing. We’ve already taken enough of my belongings over to the other suite that it will look credible—and I took Windsong with me, too. Or, to be precise, I moved her into the nursery with Tadrith and Keenath.” She eyed him apprehensively as if she expected him to object. “She’ll be safer there, in case this person gets the bright idea to go after the children.”

  His stomach turned over at the merest suggestion that harm could come to their daughter. Gods. That was a possibility I didn’t want to think of. I’d better warn Skan.

  He smiled wanly, though, and tried to make light of the situation. “Well, at least I’ll be able to sleep late in the morning, now, and she’ll have her two playmates from the moment she opens her eyes. Frankly, I pity anyone trying to get in at her—especially if they’re trying to get past Makke.”

  He meant it as a joke, but she only raised an eyebrow, and said quite seriously, “So do I. There’s more to Makke than you think.”

  He raised his own eyebrow. One mother recognizes and trusts another, I suspect. I must remember never to underestimate maternal protectiveness. Or Makke, for that matter. “So, from now on, officially you are no longer associating with me.” He couldn’t help the feeling of depression and abandonment that gave him, though he tried not to show it. That was the one part he really hated about all this. He’d been alone for so very long, and then found Winterhart—he’d never thought he’d have to face an empty bed again.

  Now she dropped her mask of serenity. From the bereft expression in her face, she felt the same as he did about any kind of separation—

  That gave him a perverse kind of comfort. It made him feel better, knowing that she would be as lonely as he, it made hi
m feel needed and valuable. Did she know that? She might.

  It was a good thing, though, that she was a consummate actress. He knew her, and knew without a shadow of a doubt that she would never betray how she felt in public. She had managed a much more difficult task in her past—of completely hiding who and what she was from people who might have recognized her.

  And it is just as well that I am as certain of her as she is of me, or when we met in public I would have terrible doubts. He laid his hand on hers as her eyes darkened with unspoken unhappiness. He sensed her heart growing as heavy as his own.

  She squared her shoulders and tried to shake her mood off with brave words, as he had known she would. “It won’t be forever. And at least if I have to avoid you in public, things can be the same in private.” She bit her lip, and he tightened his hand on hers. “In case you are curious, Shalaman has been very sweet, attentive, and entirely brotherly. I doubt anyone else has noticed the difference, but he treats me as if I were a sacred object, and not for such profane hands as his.”

  “And you are conducting yourself as if you were not only his affianced, but had lost all faith in me.” He smiled as she nodded, comforted no end, as much by the fact that she knew to give him that comfort as by the words themselves. “That has to be feeding right into our nonfriend’s plans. The more he can sow dissension in our own ranks and make us avoid each other, the more chance he has of implicating all of us in one or another of these murders.”

  Well, the worst was over, the actual acknowledgment of the separation, the physical fact of it. He found his mind was working again, thinking of possible parameters, now that the emotion was out of the way. In a curious way, he realized that he was enjoying this, despite all the danger, implicit and real, despite the artificial rift between him and his beloved. Skan might be the strategist, but he was turning out to be a more than adequate coordinator.

  And speaking of that—he should change the subject. Thinking of strategy and tactics would keep both of them from becoming too depressed by their personal thoughts. “Skan Mindspoke with Judeth and some of the others last night. Judeth is coming, along with nine of the Silvers, instead of the diplomatic experts that were originally supposed to join us.”

  She pondered that for a moment, tracing a pattern on the bed with her fingers. “That’s not a bad idea, but I wish we dared have some mages among them. Well, it’s not possible, since we don’t dare offend Palisar; he’s just marginally on our side at the moment, and if we had a mage—”

  “He’d probably make up his mind that we’d had somehow had the mage working the killings, and never mind what the Truthsayer said.” At her nod, he felt a great deal of satisfaction in his reading of the third Advisor. “How does he feel about the Consort-To-Be?”

  She laughed, but without real humor. “He’ll put up with me, but only because this isn’t real. He really doesn’t like us very much. I think we disturb him.”

  “And I think I need a bath.” Amberdrake rose, and headed for the bathroom, gesturing for her to follow. That was one place where they were sure to be left undisturbed even by servants. “I believe you are right,” he said, as he slid out of his robe and lowered himself into the bath that had been prepared for him with a little shock at the feel of the cool water against his skin. The tub was sunk into the floor, and Winterhart sat next to the head of the tub to talk to him. These people preferred cool baths over hot; not surprising, given the climate. “Silver Veil told us that the Haighlei both crave and fear changes. I think Palisar is probably the representative of the Haighlei who are most afraid of change—and Leyuet represents those who are somewhere in the middle. The Emperor himself probably represents the Haighlei—the few Haighlei—who would welcome changes.”

  “And Silver Veil?” she asked. “How does she fit into this pattern of change and denying change?”

  “Silver Veil is change itself, but hiding within a changeless package.” He was rather proud of himself for such a poetic simile, but she made a face and splashed water at him.

  He shook the drops out of his eyes, ducked under the surface to rinse his hair, then came up with a new thought.

  “I’d like to keep the real identities and purpose of our new ‘diplomats’ secret even to the Emperor,” he continued, combing his clean hair with his fingers. “The only outsider I want to tell is Leyuet—since he’s in charge of the Spears, we’ll need him to cooperate with Judeth, and he’ll have no reason to do that unless we tell him what she is.”

  Winterhart just shook her head and shrugged helplessly. “Whatever you and Skan decide is fine with me,” she told him. “I’m out of my depth with all this skulking-about talk. The best I can do is keep up my part of the deception. You just tell me what you want me to say and do, and I will.”

  Good gods, am I becoming a leader?

  Surely not.

  “Exactly as you have been doing.” He tilted his head back in open invitation, and she leaned down and planted a warm and lingering kiss, sweet and bitter at the same time, on his lips. “I wonder if you know how remarkable you are,” he breathed to her, as her lips left his.

  “Oh, I know,” she said, with a smile. “But only if you keep telling me.”

  “In that case,” he said, as she reached down to him, ignoring the danger to her robe, and despite the fact that he was soaking wet, “I shall never stop.”

  * * *

  They were all together in the gryphons’ garden when Leyuet walked in on them with the stiff expression and gray cast around the lips that they had all come to associate with very bad news. This time, at least, he did not bring the Spears with him, but his face betrayed his thoughts, and they were as dark as his skin.

  They stared at him in shocked silence for a moment. The sound of falling water seemed unnaturally loud.

  Only one thing can have put that particular expression on his face.

  “Oh, gods—” Amberdrake exclaimed. “Not another—”

  He did not have to say anything more. Leyuet nodded grimly, and sat down in a carved wooden seat as if he were exhausted.

  He probably is. This is very, very hard on him.

  “We discovered it not long ago, but it happened last night, and I’m certain there will be more folk than I who will recall that Skandranon was flying at the time,” the Truthsayer said through clenched teeth. “This is the insidious part; whoever is behind this must know where the two of you are at all times now, and makes the murder appear to be the work of the one without an alibi at that time. He must be learning from his mistake the first time.”

  “I would be surprised if he were not,” Amberdrake said, and ran a hand through his hair. “Can I assume that our killer left evidence pointing to Skan?”

  “Are marks of a gryphon’s claw enough?” Leyuet countered, but now with an odd and ironic air of triumph. “This victim appeared to have been clawed to death by something that came in by way of the open door of the balcony.”

  He’s holding back something, Amberdrake realized—but also realized that he should allow the man to reveal whatever it was in his own good time. One does not force the conjurer’s hand. It isn’t polite, and it spoils the trick for everyone, especially the conjurer.

  “And Palisar isn’t beating down our door?” Skan said in surprise—obviously the gryphon hadn’t seen what Amberdrake had. “I am astonished! How have you kept him muzzled?”

  “He kept himself muzzled,” Leyuet told them, and fished in the capacious sleeve of his robe for something, the sleeves that every Haighlei seemed to use instead of pockets or pouches.

  Ah. Now we have the moment of revelation.

  He found whatever it was he was looking for, and held out a silk-wrapped trifle in triumph. Whatever it was, it was about the size of a human finger under the wrapping of black silk.

  No one touched it, and Leyuet carefully undid the folds of silk from around it. The last fold fell away, revealing a bit of wood.

  Very hard, dark wood from the look of it—and very ski
llfully carved, into the shape of a gryphon’s talon. By the rough bit ending the third “knuckle,” there had been a weakness in the wood the carver hadn’t noticed, and it had broken off.

  “Well!” Amberdrake said, picking the thing up with a bit of silk between it and his fingers, and holding it up to the light. If there were any traces of the carver’s identity still on it after contact with so much blood and pain, he didn’t want to muddle them by leaving his own traces. “So Palisar is finally convinced?”

  Odd. Something about the carving seemed familiar, but he just couldn’t place it.

  “He couldn’t explain that away,” Leyuet countered, with a grim smile. “He’s had temple mages on it, and so far they’ve found nothing, but he thinks the problem is with them and not the claw; you know how magic is these days. By evening their spells could suddenly go right again.”

  “Hmm.” Amberdrake put the claw back in Leyuet’s hand, wrapped again in the insulating silk. “Does anyone else know?”

  Leyuet shook his head, and tucked the betraying bit of evidence away again. “Not even the temple mages; Palisar told them nothing. Only the King, the Advisors, and now you know where it was found.”

  This is important. This might be just what we’ve been hoping for. “Suppress it,” Amberdrake decided instantly. “Let it leak that the victim was clawed to death by something like a huge lion. It isn’t going to hurt anything at this stage if Skan goes back on the list of suspects, and if he doesn’t—then a rumor just might spread that I’m a mighty mage and can call up demonic creatures to murder my enemies at a distance.” He smiled grimly himself. “The latter rumor might help keep me in one piece. If people think I can call up demons, they may think twice about attacking me on their own.”

  Leyuet nodded; Skan must have told him about the arrow at Morning Court. “The King is coming here to discuss this in a moment, as soon as he can free himself from his guards. Technically, he is coming to have a private moment with Winterhart—”

  “Which is an excellent excuse for conferring with all of you,” said the King from the door into the gryphons’ garden. “No one will dare intrude on the Emperor and his affianced.”