The Mages of Bennamore

by Pauline M. Ross

  “Can you detect any swords guarding the door?” Mal said.

  My spirits plummeted again. “No, nothing. She can’t be there. They would never leave her unguarded.”

  “Never mind, we are getting close to the Holder’s tower,” Arin said. “This way, I think.”

  I stopped, frowning. “No, it’s that way. I can feel the glass ball. It’s in that direction.”

  But every time we got close, the tunnel veered away, twisting around until we were all lost, except for Kael, of course, who led us unerringly back to familiar ground.

  On the third day of searching, we finally found the way to the Holder’s tower, but the door opened directly into the kitchens, as busy as an anthill, and we dared not try to pass through.

  We spent the afternoon back at the house, all of us thankful to be above ground again. Losh had written his message, but had no way to send it. We had found Ish’s tower, but had no way to get into it.

  “We will go in at night when it will be quieter,” Arin said, as casually as if he were planning a shopping expedition. “There will be no one in the kitchens then.”

  “Apart from the kitchen boy who sleeps in there to keep the fires going, and the baker starting the morning’s bread, and the night guards whenever they feel hungry,” Mal said acidly.

  “Ah, true. I had not thought of that.”

  “There is also the risk of you and Drin being caught there. That would likely start a war between Dristomar and Shannamar.”

  “We do not have wars any more, not between Holdings. Besides, I have no intention of missing the fun. This was my idea, remember?”

  “At least Fen shouldn’t go. It’s not safe.”

  “I have to go, unless you have miraculously acquired the power to open locks overnight.”

  His face fell. “I suppose so. But even if we can get in past all these people occupying the kitchen, we have no idea where anyone will be.”

  “It’s a small enough tower, how difficult can it be?” Arin spread his hands with airy confidence.

  “Not difficult at all,” Mal said. “Just stand on the stairs and shout until everyone comes out to see what’s going on. But if you want to sneak in, find someone useful, get some information from them and also sneak back out again, without getting skewered by Commander Kestimar or one of his pals – that gets slightly tricky.”

  “Hmm. Point taken. We need to know where everyone will be – where the bedrooms are, where the guards stand and so forth. How can we find out?”

  “I know who we can ask,” I said smugly. “I always knew they couldn’t be totally pointless. It’s time they reimbursed us for suffering through all their endless silliness.”

  “Ah!” Mal said, smiling. “I’ll fetch them.”

  He returned a few minutes later with the two needlewomen from the Hold, looking sullen and resentful. Their husbands trailed in behind them, but by contrast, their expressions were puzzled rather than annoyed.

  Mal brought chairs forward for the two women. “Sit.”

  “Why? What do you want? We have things to do…”

  “Sit.” He spoke quietly, but he loomed over them in a menacing way that would have alarmed me, too, if I were as stupid as those two.

  They sat, exchanging long-suffering glances, with a pretence of defiance.

  “Time for you to repay our hospitality. We’ve put up with your traitorous behaviour, feeding every last detail about us to your paymasters at the Hold, so now you can give us a little information in return.”

  They spluttered in outrage, appealed to their husbands, threatened to walk out – all to no avail. Mal was not to be denied, and in the end they squawked like chickens, and told us everything we wanted, and the jade belts guaranteed we got the truth out of them. It was beautiful.

  “You knew they were spies?” I said, when Mal had finally released them, still spluttering in outrage.

  “Well, of course. We’re not stupid.”

  I glanced across at the two husbands, who snickered. “What, you thought we were taken in by a pair of whores?” one said. “We’re better trained than that.”

  I had to laugh at their smug faces. Maybe mage guards were smarter than I’d thought.

  We planned our expedition. We decided to go for Ish’s wife, who was likely to be less protected than Ish himself. The two had separate bedrooms, a little piece of information which I stowed away next to my heart, to be savoured when I was alone. We just had to hope they wouldn’t choose this particular night to play the married couple. Kestimar and Nord both had rooms in the tower, but a floor below, and the daughter and her nurses slept on the highest floor of the tower, well out of the way. We would make our way up the back stairs, emerging only a few paces from the bedroom door. Only four of us would enter the tower – Arin, Mal, Lenya and me. Kael was to come through the tunnels with us, but he would stay down below, with Drin for company.

  “We leave an hour before midnight,” Arin said, grinning with excitement.

  The others all ate heartily at evening table, but I was too nervous. It was one thing to creep about the Hold with Tarn, and sneak into the Bell Tower. If anything had gone wrong on that occasion, Tarn could have revealed herself and the escapade would have been overlooked, written off as the eccentricities of age and high rank. Tonight there would be no laughing off our actions if we were caught.

  After evening table, Mal and I retreated to our room to rest for a few hours. We laid out our gear for the night – fully armoured leathers for him, and practical trousers and tunic for me – then undressed down to our shirts.

  Mal stretched out on the bed, arms above his head, and closed his eyes. Although he lay unmoving, I knew he wasn’t asleep, for his breathing remained light and even.

  I was all too aware that perhaps neither of us would see the dawn, and these few hours might be all that remained to us. This was not the time to hide behind my carefully constructed walls, concealing my emotions with a mask of indifference and a sharp tongue. Mal was not the man I would ever choose, but he was the man I was with now, here in the final quiet moments before we set out on our dangerous venture.

  So when I lay down beside him, I didn’t keep to my own side of the bed, as I usually did, careful not to touch him. Instead, I curled up along his side, my head on his shoulder, one leg casually across his, my arm around his waist. Maybe he preferred to sleep, and maybe it was his habit to run through the plans in his mind, but I wanted him to know that if he had an urge for anything else, it was available.

  He sighed at my touch, and wrapped an arm around me, resting one hand on my head. “Ow! Those hairpins are vicious.”

  I raised my head to look at him. “Shall I unpin my hair?”

  He smiled and nodded. I pulled out the pins, and unwound my braids.

  “Ah, that’s better. You have lovely hair, my darling.”

  “Your hair is too short for me to run my fingers through. Fortunately, you have other attractions.”

  “Do I?” He stared at me, not hostile but genuinely curious. “I thought you disliked everything about me.”

  “Of course I don’t. For a start, I like the way you take me out for wonderful meals and buy me presents.”

  “Ah, that.” A soft chuckle.

  “Yes, that. You’re a kind, generous man, and I appreciate it. Also, I like looking at your rear when you walk naked across the room.” His eyebrows rose. “I like your strong arms, and your muscles. I like – other parts of you.” I slid one hand up the inside of his thigh. “I like your big, gentle hands…”

  He laughed at that. “Really? I was so clumsy when I was a boy!”

  “You’re not clumsy any more. I like the way you kiss me.” I patted little butterfly kisses all round his mouth, then softly flicked his lips with my tongue.

  “Are you making love to me, my sweet?”

  “Would you like me to?” Another kiss, and another.

  “Yes.” Almost a whisper. “Yes, I would. Although aren’t we supposed to be r
esting?”

  “We can rest later.” I shifted a little so that I could reach his mouth better, but before I could bend to my task, he put one finger on my lips.

  “This is lovely and please don’t stop, but – did you mean all those things you said? That you think I’m kind? You find me attractive?”

  “I meant it all.”

  “But you’ll never love me.” There was no rancour in his words, it was no more than a statement of fact. “You love him.”

  I took a deep breath, and moved away from him a little. At last we had come to it, the uncrossable ravine that lay between us. We’d skirted round it before, trying to pretend it didn’t exist. I’d told myself it was none of Mal’s business what I felt for Ish.

  Tonight I’d set out to be completely honest, though, and I couldn’t shrink from that now. Nor could I lie with a man and refuse to tell him what was in my heart. It was too deceitful.

  “You never forget your first love,” I said. “It sears itself into your soul, so you can never quite leave it behind. Yes, I love him, and probably I always will. He still loves me. It’s our destiny. But you have to understand that a part of me hates him, too, for the way he treated me. He promised he would come for me, and he never did. He left me to rot in that miserable little town, while he gallivanted all over the continent enjoying himself, and then, while I struggled to survive, he became Holder…” The anger was rising in me, and I had to pause, to fight it back down. “So you see, that is always with me, too. I can’t escape it, neither the hate nor the love.”

  He was silent for a long time, his face serious, as he thought it over. It was obvious to me now how much it mattered to him. I’d never truly understood that before, assuming his constant worrying about Ish no more than male pride or simple jealousy. But he genuinely wanted to know how I felt, he cared how I felt and I found it a very curious sensation to be the recipient of so much goodwill. I couldn’t think of anyone else in my life – not family, not friends, not employers or fellow workers – who had shown me so much unconditional and good-humoured affection. Even his occasional outbursts had been (I was ashamed to admit it) entirely justified.

  “I can live with that,” he said eventually. But then his eyes twinkled. “And then you got me. Poor Fen! No wonder you were so snappish with me.”

  He laughed good naturedly, and I laughed too. “Until I discovered your good points. Like this one…”

  I slid my hand between his thighs again. After that, we didn’t talk for quite some time.

  33: Kidnap

  We dressed with care. For Mal it was a normal routine, slipping into a mail shirt and armoured leather, clipping on daggers and sword, then a couple of throwing knives. For me, it was anything but normal. The jade belt went on first, banishing my residual tiredness and hunger with that wonderful buzz of magic. Then a thick undershirt of Lenya’s, one without chafing seams. A mail vest went over that, lighter than Mal’s but heavy enough to drag me down, as if I was walking through deep snow. Then a plain tunic and a short leather coat on top. Even the trousers had extra padding to protect me. It was not an especially warm night, but I was sweltering before we even got under way.

  I carried no weapon, and wouldn’t have known what to do with it if I’d had one. I took the glass ball, hanging from my belt in its velvet bag.

  The tunnels were pleasantly cool. Kael led us without hesitation through the maze of passages and intersecting ways to the door behind the kitchen in Ish’s family tower. There Kael and Drin would wait for us, although Drin had instructions to get Kael away from there if anything untoward happened or he panicked. Kael trapped underground in a state of alarm could release a firestorm of destruction. He could even bring down the entire tower. Drin had Hestaria’s ball with him, so he could alert us to any problems through my ball.

  I unlocked the door to the tower’s kitchen, and Lenya, the smallest and quietest of us, crept in to survey for sleeping boys or bakers or hungry guards.

  I chewed my lip, waiting. Then her freckled face, unsmiling for once, appeared round the door, and she waved us through. We filed into the empty room, with only a whisper of creaking leather and clinking sword clasps. The kitchen was still hot from the ranges and ovens, the air hazy with smoke and the lingering smell of seared meat. Exotic spices hung in the air. A couple of narrow windows, high on one wall, gave us enough light to see by.

  We passed quickly through to the servants’ stairs at the far side, seeing no one and hearing nothing untoward. Shutting the door behind us, we huddled at the foot of the stairs, and Lenya created a glow ball, the soft light casting ghostly shadows all round us. Arin looked excited, Lenya and Mal calm but alert, and I tried desperately to slow my racing heart.

  “Any swords around?” Arin said.

  It calmed me to have such a simple question. I took a deep breath. The enhanced sensitivity of the jade belt enabled me to know the whereabouts of every last nail and hook. Swords were too easy.

  “Two in the entrance hall, not moving – sitting, I think, from the angle. Two more on patrol on the floor above. There are some other large blades in the tower, but all either locked away or hung on the walls. A few daggers around, but nothing moving, mostly on the bedroom floors.” Sensible to keep a dagger at hand while you slept, I daresay, but not encouraging for us.

  “Right. Let us go up. Complete silence, everyone. Fen, walk behind me, and tap my arm if you detect swords close at hand.”

  We crept up and up. Every footfall on the stone steps, every scrape of a scabbard on the wall was amplified and echoing into the open space around us. There were narrow slits for windows, but they were overgrown with vines and gave little light, so we trod carefully by the shimmering light of Lenya’s glow ball. It was so dim, I had to feel for each step, but they were broad and even, designed for servants bearing trays or with arms full of linen.

  One floor up was the entrance hall, where the guards watched. We passed close enough to hear the murmur of voices and the clack of dice. It was lucky the servants’ stair was concealed by doors to hide our passage.

  On the next floor was the family’s sitting room, and I was very aware of the glass ball in its case. The other objects – the intricate workings of the clock, the ceremonial daggers, my gold dragon – were visible to me too, but the glass ball was a stronger presence in my mind. It was as if it was alive, curled up asleep for now, but sentient and aware, a powerful entity, like the sun waiting below the horizon with the promise of the dawn.

  The other two guards were here, presumably to watch over the treasures while the family slept. They paced up and down once more, and then as we crept higher up our stairs, they began the descent to join their fellows below, duty done for an hour.

  Up one more floor, but again we passed by. This was where Nord and Kestimar slept, and we could only hope they were safely asleep in their beds. We had no wish to meet either of them, for they both had weapons to turn against us: Kestimar his sword and a fearsome reputation for using it, and Nord the power of his mind. Although three of us were protected by magic, Arin wasn’t, and it was better not to tangle with a connection which could distort the rational mind. None of us wanted to encounter Kestimar’s sword.

  At last we reached the floor where Ish and his wife slept. If luck was with us, Ish would be in his own bed, and his wife would be alone, apart from a maid sleeping in the tiny adjoining room, and known to be a heavy sleeper. But we had no way to tell. I could describe every nail and hinge and spoon and pot chain in the tower, the guards were recognisable by their weapons, and even Kestimar’s sword beside his bed was clear to see, but a man or woman in a nightgown was invisible to me unless wearing jewelry.

  This was where our carefully contrived expedition could fall apart in an instant. We would have to enter the room blind, and one scream would raise the entire household, and we would all be finished.

  I sought in my mind for the doors, and found them all closed. Ish’s door was locked – interesting – but his wife’s was
n’t. There was no lock on the maid’s door at all.

  We crept out of the stairwell. Arin was to guard the main stairs, with me close by to warn him if the guards approached. Mal and Lenya were to enter the bedroom. Mal had enough control of magic to put someone to sleep with a touch – he’d done it to me once – and so long as the wife was tucked up in her bed, as she should be, they would have her unconscious and out of the room in a few heartbeats. All it needed was a hand to her forehead. And if she was awake, the trick was to keep her quiet and still for the few seconds needed.

  Arin and I were in position, and the two guards were silently approaching the door, when we heard voices. A woman’s first, angry and scornful. The wife. Then a man, shouting back at her. I froze, my heart flip-flopping like a beached fish. Who else could it be but Ish? Who else could possibly be quarrelling with a married woman in her bedroom long after midnight?

  Lenya’s glow ball popped out of existence, but there was still dim light from a window on the main stair. She and Mal melted into the shadows of the corridor, tucked away behind a tall plant in a brass pot on one side and a suit of armour on the other.

  The voices grew louder, more agitated. There was a crash of something breaking, and the bedroom door flew open.

  “You are crazy!” the man’s voice yelled. It wasn’t Ish! My spirits soared.

  “Get out, get out! Leave me alone, you moron!” That was the wife, with her strong accent.

  The door slammed shut again, and the man stamped towards me, head down.

  I was still too shocked to move. I stood rigid, watching him approach with a horrified sense of inevitability. It was over, we would be caught and executed. He had only to lift his head, see me and shout for help.

  With practised synchrony, Mal and Lenya swept out of their hiding places, knives glinting. Mal threw an arm round the man’s neck, while Lenya held a knife to his face.

  “One word and I slit your throat,” she hissed. “Understand?”