Castle of Deception bt-1

by Mercedes Lackey

  “And so you’re trying to protect other women?”

  “Hell, no! I’m trying to protect any helpless soul! Damned if I’m going to let anyone, male, female or whatever, be turned into a—a thing to be used, not if I can do something to stop it—Besides,” she added, her quick grin back so suddenly Kevin wondered if she was ashamed of having been serious for even a moment, “the pay is good!”

  “But what—”

  “Look,” she interrupted brusquely, “here comes the rest of our party.”

  The bardling watched them leaving the keep, first one, then another, then ... two? Only two? Staring in dismay, Kevin realized that despite all those encouraging words, the count couldn’t have trusted him that much after all.

  Ah well, what was, as the saying went, was. Trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice, he waited till they were within earshot, then began as firmly as he could, “Welcome. I am Kevin, a bardling, and this warrior is Lydia.”

  As the first figure shook back the hood of its gray-green cloak, revealing slanted green eyes, pale, silken hair and fair-skinned, ageless features so fine-boned and elegant they never could have been human, the bardling added with a gasp, “You’re an elf!”

  The elf-man looked at him without expression. Except, Kevin thought glumly, for a hint of contempt in those slanted eyes. “You are observant.”

  Oh yes, this was an elf, all right. The sarcasm in the cool voice reminded Kevin all too well of that night in the forest. “I’m sorry,” the bardling said as courteously as he could. “I didn’t mean to be rude. I was just surprised.”

  That earned him the barest dip of the head from the elf. “Understandably. I am Eliathanis, of the Moonspirit clan of White Elves.” He was also obviously a warrior, his lithe figure dad in silvery scales of elvish armor, a straight sword with an intricately wrought silver hilt at his side. “My people do not enjoy being accused by humans of harm. I was here at court when the girl was stolen—and I intend to prove those accusations wrong.”

  I bet you haven’t got a crumb of humor in your whole body, Kevin thought, eyeing that rigidly controlled face. Stealing from one of the old ballads, the bardling said formally, “We shall be glad of your help, good warrior,” and gave a formal little bow.

  “But will you be so glad of my help?” the second figure wondered softly. Slowly, with a fine sense of drama, it drew back the hood of its black cloak. revealing a face just as inhumanly fine-boned and elegant as that of Eliathanis, framed by a fall of straight, silvery-blond hair —but this face was so dark of skin it was nearly as black as the cloak. The elf was dressed entirely in black as well, tunic, hose, boots, all save for a chin silver belt. The clasp, Kevin noted uneasily, was worked in the shape of a skull. Blue eyes, eerie against so much darkness, glinted coldly.

  “A Dark Elf!” Lydia yelped, hand flying to the hilt of her sword.

  “Nithathil,” the White Elf hissed, eyes blazing.

  The Dark Elf bowed, so very graciously it was an insult. “Yes,” he said in his soft voice, “Nithathil, Dark Elf; indeed.” The blue glance flicked lightly over Kevin and Lydia, then back to the other elf. “Call me Naitachal if you must have a specific name for me.”

  “I have a name for you!” Eliathanis snapped. “Necromancer!”

  Kevin stepped hastily between the angry elves, hoping he wasn’t about to get blasted by either side. “Uh ... might we ask what you wish, my ... uh ... my lord Nahachal?”

  “Why, I am here to help you return the lost human girl to her uncle, even as you,” the Dark Elf purred.

  But Kevin, being as close to the elf as he was, caught the barest glint of pain in the eerie blue eyes. He expects us to hate him! the bardling realized in surprise. And the idea hurts him. f didn’t think Dark Elves cared what anyone thought of them!

  As Kevin hesitated, uncertain, Naitachal drew back the barest step, drawing his cloak about his lean form. “I do not wish to force myself on you,” he murmured to Kevin. “But even as you. White Elf, I will not see my people accused of a crime that is not theirs.”

  “Since when did your kind worry about what others thought?” Eliathanis challenged.

  “Since the humans have become so numerous,” the Dark Elf answered. “Even the mightiest of dragons can be brought down by a large enough pack of hounds.”

  “Ah. Well. Yes,” Kevin said. Great, here was his first big decision as a leader, and he was stammering like an idiot! “Lydia, Eliathanis, we can hardly deny a man the right to defend the honor of his people.”

  “They have no—”

  “Of his people,” Kevin repeated hastily, before the White Elf could finish his insult. “Whatever we may think of each other, we’ve been thrown together on the orders of Count Volmar. Do any of you wish to back out now? Well? Do you? You’d better speak now, because I don’t want to find myself in the middle of—” Of what? Thinking frantically, the bardling continued, almost smoothly—”of some heroic battle only to see my supposed comrades battling each other instead. Or running away like little boys yelling, ‘I don’t wanna play with him!’”

  “How dare you!” Eliathanis began in outrage, but Kevin continued, using his trained musician’s voice to swell over the White Elf’s words, “Look at you two elves! You think yourself superior to us humans? Well, maybe you are—but I haven’t seen any sign of that superiority yet!”

  “Bravo,” murmured Lydia, but the bardling ignored her. continuing hotly, “While you two waste precious time by bickering, an innocent girl may be suffering, may even be dying! We all want the same thing, and that’s to free her! I ask you, all three of you: will you or will you not stay with me?”

  There was a long, tense silence. Then:

  “Hell, I’m willing,” Lydia said with a shrug—

  “And I,” murmured Naitachal.

  Eliathanis hesitated a moment longer, glaring at the Dark Elf, then shrugged. “No one has spoken of abandoning you. human. Besides, I would not have it said 1 was less brave than a Nithathil.”

  Kevin nearly laughed aloud, all at once so shaky with relief he wasn’t sure he could move. “Good! And together we shall stay—until the Lady Charina is returned safely to her uncle!”

  Chapter VI

  “What do you mean, this is all we get?” Lydia thundered at the startled stable hand.

  “But—but my lady, there are four of you. The count’s offering you four horses—”

  “And what about grain for those horses? And supplies for us? Hell, I can hunt down enough meat to keep us going, and I’m sure the boy or one of these elves knows how to find nuts and berries, but I am not going to sleep on bare ground or go without a change of clothes! You throw in at least one pack horse, fully provisioned, mind you—and do it now!”

  As the terrified servant scurried off, Lydia winked at Kevin. “That’s the way to do it,” she murmured. “Act as if you know what you’re doing, keep ‘em off balance, and they’ll give you anything you want”

  “I—I see.” The bardling struggled to imitate Eliathanis and keep his face an impassive mask. But he was sure everyone knew exactly how inept he felt! Here he was supposed to be the leader of the group and it hadn’t even occurred to him to ask for grain!

  “Don’t worry, kid.” The woman gave his shoulder a light punch. “I’ll look out for you.”

  Wonderful. Just what he wanted: a babysitter. Kevin tried not to scowl as he watched Lydia prowl up and down the rows of stalls. “Which is Lady Charina’s horse?” she called out. “This? Should have known. Dainty little creature. A real lady’s palfrey. Couldn’t stand a day on the trail ... Hold still, horse.”

  She lifted a foreleg, examining the hoof and shoe, then waved the others to her side—

  “Distinctive shoeing. See the slight ridging here, and here? If this beast left hoofprints, I can follow them.”

  “My ... uh ... lady?”

  Lydia glanced up and grinned. “Ah, here we go!”

  As she had ordered, the stable hand had bro
ught them not only their horses, but a laden pack horse as well.

  As they rode down from the casde and out over the fields, Lydia crouched low over the neck other horse, studying the ground, finally dismounting to study what looked like a perfectly unremarkable patch of earth to Kevin.

  “This is where the girl was seized, all right,” she said. “See how the grass has been torn up?”

  Eliathanis dismounted as well, then drew back in distaste. “It stinks of sorcery.”

  “It does,” Naitachal agreed softly, joining him. “Sorcery cold enough to slay a man.” Wrapped in his black cloak, hood up against the sun (which must be uncomfortably bright, Kevin thought, to someone used to darker lands), the Dark Elf was a sinister, faceless figure. “Do you not feel the echo of his death?” Naitachal sighed in regret. “Were it only a tiny bit stronger, I could call his spirit to us and learn the truth.”

  “Necromancy!” Eliathanis spat,

  “Oh, indeed.” Kevin thought he caught the barest hint of a sardonic smile from under that black hood. “What was worked here.” the Dark Elf continued softly, “was not the magic of my folk, nor yours, nor even that of the humans. Not ... quite, at any rate. Intriguing. But I can’t pick up a clear enough trace for it to be very helpful. What of you. White Elf?”

  Eliathanis shook his head. “Whoever it was took great pains to cover his tracks.”

  “His?”

  “Or hers. Or even theirs. I can’t be sure.”

  Lydia glanced from one elf to the other, then shrugged. “We didn’t expect things to be easy, did we?” Bending to examine the ground, the woman gave a soft laugh of triumph. “Maybe there aren’t any clear magical traces, but at least there is a physical track. See, here’s where Charina’s palfrey bolted back to its stable. But here ... these are the tracks of a different horse. Bigger ... heavier ... maybe a destrier?” She swung lithely back into the saddle. “It has to be the horse the kidnapper was riding. Look, the tracks are faint enough as they are. Let’s get going before something destroys them altogether.”

  As the small party rode on out of field into scrubland then forest, following an overgrown trail that must originally have been cut by woodsmen, Kevin wondered bitterly if he really was the leader. Lydia was doing the tracking, and the two elves had their magic to help them, while he—he was nothing but an untried bardling who didn’t even know about—

  Hey, wait a minute! “Naitachal?”

  The Dark Elf had pushed back his hood as soon as the first trees had screened off the sun—His fair hair gleamed, startling bright against the darkness of skin and clothing, as he brought his horse up beside Kevin’s. “Yes?”

  Naitachal’s eyes, disconcertingly, glinted red in the dim light, sending echoes of every eerie tale he’d ever heard flashing through Kevin’s mind. Don’t be stupid! he scolded himself. He’s an ally. For now, anyhow. “Were you in the castle when the groom’s body was brought in?”

  “1 was,” Naitachal said softly. “And yes, I did ask to be allowed to examine it”

  Eliathanis’ keen elf ears caught that murmur. “To work your spells on it, you mean!”

  The Dark Elf smiled without rancor. “Exactly. I have been well trained in the sorceries that can draw back the dead. One would think Count Volmar would have been anxious to learn anything that might have helped him recover his niece. And yet I was refused.”

  “Not surprising,” the White Elf snapped. “He didn’t want anything tainted by Darkness in his castle.”

  “Ah, my touchy cousin-elf, you don’t understand. One would also think the groom would have been buried with honor, having died defending his lady. But there was no public burial, and even I have no idea what became of his body.”

  Odd, Kevin admitted to himself uneasily, very odd.

  But before he could continue chat thought, a small, shrill voice called out:

  “Here you are! It cook you long enough!”

  With a laugh, Lydia reined in her horse. “Well, forgive me, Tich’ki! You knew it was going to take some time! I went as fast as I could.”

  “A fairy!” Kevin cried.

  “A human!” the fairy mocked in return. “My, my, what a clever little boy!”

  The bardling tried in vain not to stare. As with all her kind, Tich’ki was small, barely coming up to his horse’s knee. She was undeniably female, an adult woman other kind, almost beautiful in a sharp-edged, predatory wild creature way. Her bright, sharply slanted eyes, green as those of a White Elf, seemed enormous in her triangular face, her hair was caught up in a tangle of auburn braids, and even her iridescent wings seemed to have a predatory glint to them, like those of a dragonfly.

  She was, if half the stories about her kind were true, just as likely to stab a human with that gleaming little spear she bore as talk to one—

  That didn’t seem to bother Lydia. I never heard of any human making friends with a fairy, Kevin thought. But friends they did seem to be, or at least acquaintances. “We’re off on an adventure,” the warrior woman said.

  “No-o,” Tich’ki drawled, “really? I drought you were just out for a ride in the woodland.” Her green gaze sharpened. “With a White and Dark Elf together, no less. So, Lydia? Are you going to give me a hand up?”

  “You—you’re going with us?” Kevin asked, then had to hold fast to his startled horse’s reins as Tich’ki darted upward in a blur and buzz of wings, landing lightly behind the warrior woman—

  “You going to stop me?”

  “ No, no, of course not It’s just ... well ... I never knew one of your people to be friendly with one of mine.”

  “No, and you’re not likely to again.”

  Lydia laughed. “Tich’ki and me, we’re a lot alike. Don’t like staying cooped up in one place too long. I first met her when she was pinned down by a hunting hound.”

  “And I saved you later from the angry hunters.” Tich’ki gave the woman a sharp little pinch. “So don’t go getting all superior.” She squirmed about to stare at Kevin with her hard green gaze—”That’s it, boy. Lydia and me, we sometimes travel together. But don’t think because I tolerate her, I have a love for all you humans.”

  “Ah.” For a fairy to be out on her own like this, travel lust or no, could only mean she’d been cast out from her people—possibly for associating with a mere human. Not knowing what else to say, Kevin stammered, “Uh, welcome to our group. We’re searching for the niece of—”

  “I know all that!” Tich’ki said impatiently, wings stirring. “I have every bit as strong a scrying talent as those hulking elf-men. The only reason I wasn’t up there in that castle with you is because I didn’t want to get stepped on by some clumsy lout of a human.”

  More likely, Kevin thought, the humans wouldn’t let such a perilous little creature in!

  Tich’ki settled herself more comfortably sidesaddle behind Lydia, folding her wings, too small to ride astride. “I want to find out what happened to that simpering little girl, too.”

  “She doesn’t simper!” Kevin said hotly, then stopped short at Tich’ki’s sly grin. Too late, he remembered another nasty little trait about fairies: they delighted in tormenting humans, one way or another. And I fell right into her trap.

  “Now we are five,” Naitachal murmured wryly. Tich’ki glared. “And you’ll be glad of it. Dark Elf! All right, enough of this. Let’s go!”

  As they rode deeper into the forest, dense brush all but engulfed the trail, forcing them to ride single file. Thick canopies of leaves shut out more and more of the tight. At last, surrounded by dim green twilight, Lydia swore under her breath and dismounted, peering at the ground in disgust “Damn.”

  “What’s wrong?” Kevin asked. “You’ve lost the track?”

  “No, no, the track’s still there—I just can’t see it in all this gloom.”

  “A torch—”

  “Torches flicker too much, create too many distorting shadows.” She glanced up at the elves. “One of you give me some nice, steady light�
��

  Eliathanis hesitated, then admitted reluctantly, “I can’t I’m a warrior, not a magician. The only magic I possess is that innate to my race.”

  “No light-spells, eh? Tich’ki, I know you don’t have any, either.”

  The fairy shrugged. “Can’t know everything. Better things to do with my time than waste it studying spells.”

  A fairy who wasn’t too much of a magician? Kevin had never heard of such a thing. Maybe that was why she’d been cast out by her people.