Part 22 (1/2)
”Your son Tolivar, of course,” said the Archd.u.c.h.ess. ”The one who wears the Three-Headed Monster. He had the star-box and the second talisman as well- the Burning Eye-but your sister Kadiya forced him to give those back to her.”
”Tola... my talisman... This is impossible! The boy is in Var, thousands of leagues from here, and so is Kadi. And Tola does not have the coronet.”
Again Naelore laughed. ”What mother truly knows her own child? He has possessed it-and used it-for at least four years, unbeknownst to all save the Star Master, who speaks to the boy in his dreams. Now your precious son and his aunt and their surviving henchmen are here in Sobrania, just as you are. I doubt not that you will meet the lot of them before long, to your mutual sorrow.”
Tazor hoisted the Queen, who had gone flaccid with shock, onto the rear of the Archd.u.c.h.ess's saddle. He then bound Anigel's hands and wrapped her well in a cloak. ”I will deal with the others and catch up with you, Imperial Highness,” he said to Naelore. ”But do not let the Master delay the invasion on my account.”
Naelore nodded curtly and mounted. Lifting her silver-gloved hand in farewell to Tazor, she sent her nyar speeding away.
”Will you take us back to Castle Conflagrant, then?” Ledavardis of Raktum asked the Star Man. Ledavardis and Queen Jiri were now on their feet, while old Widd knelt with his arms about Raviya, both of them pale but serene of countenance.
”No,” Tazor said, peering down at Gyorgibo, who had begun to groan and stir from promptings of the Guildsman's boot. ”I am going to shut the lot of you up in the imperial hunting lodge, where our army spent the night. It lies about eighty leagues downriver from here, a six- or seven-hour ride. The ferocious denizens of the Lirda will keep you secure for a few days until we complete our business in Brandoba and retrieve you.”
He addressed Hakit Botal. ”Sir President, you and the Goblin Kinglet wade across the river and catch your wandering fronials. Make haste, or I will burn the ears off one of these ladies with my fire-squirter.” Resting his weapon on one shoulder, he turned to Duumvir Prigo. ”You! Take up that old sword and cut two long poles and several lengths of stout vine. We will have to make a drag-litter for Princess Raviya.” And to Ga-Bondies: ”Remove the harness and blanket from that dead steed, then unbuckle the leathers and make them into separate straps.”
As the able-bodied male hostages went to their ch.o.r.es, Tazor ambled over to Jiri, Raviya, and Widd, who had been whispering among themselves. ”How fares the old dame?” he asked, not unkindly.
”The Eternal Princess is suffering mostly from exhaustion,” said the Queen of Galanar. ”The litter is an excellent idea. Will you also make one for the poor Archduke?”
The Star Man gave a nasty chuckle. ”Let him travel trussed and flung over my saddle, like a dead nunchik. It matters not. Unlike the rest of you, he will not long survive his sister's ascent to the imperial throne.”
”I don't suppose,” Jiri said in a wheedling manner, ”that you have wine you might spare for Princess Raviya? It would give her strength.”
”Take the bottleskin from my saddlebag.”
Jiri eyed the tall nyar askance. ”Oh my! I would not dare approach that dreadful bird-”
”I have enchanted it with my Star. It will not move nor harm you unless I give the command.”
Jiri went to the great creature and began rummaging in one of the saddlebags, which was so high as to be nearly above her head. ”Perhaps the bottle is on the other side,” she said, and went around the bird out of Tazor's sight. A moment later she called out, ”I still can't seem to find it.”
Grumbling, the Star Man went to a.s.sist her. The plump, middle-aged Queen stood back, smiling apologetically with both hands thrust up her ample sleeves. Holding his weapon in one hand, Tazor turned away from her and groped inside the feather-trimmed leather pouch with the other.
Jiri stepped up behind him. The s.p.a.ce between the bottom edge of the sorcerer's starburst helmet and the upper part of his cuira.s.s was narrow, only about two fingers wide. The Queen whipped a war flail out of her sleeve, whirled its chain overhead, and sent the heavy iron swingle at the chain's end squarely into the aperture of the armor. There was a ghastly snap. His neck broken, Tazor dropped in his tracks without uttering a sound.
The nyar came abruptly to life, roaring, and gave a short hop backward. It sc.r.a.ped one huge clawed foot in the mud in challenge, lowered its head, and tensed to spring at the Queen.
From the bushes came a figure scuttling on hands and knees. It was the Archduke Gyorgibo, who scooped up the weapon of the Vanished Ones which Tazor had let fall and fired it directly into the wide-open fanged beak of the monster that menaced Jiri. The nyar's head vanished in a burst of red fire and the colossal body thudded onto the ground.
”Heldo's Tentacles!” cried King Ledavardis. He and Hakit Botal were standing on the opposite bank of the small river, awestruck at what the Queen and Gyorgibo had done.
”I am truly sorry about Tazor,” Jiri said. ”He was by no means as deep-dyed a reprobate as Naelore.” A tear gleamed in her eye and the Archduke put a comforting arm about her.
The two Duumviri now sidled up and gaped at the dead Star Man and the headless carnivore.
”Mother-in-law,” Prigo said shakily, ”I am overwhelmed. I salute your warrior prowess.”
”What in G.o.d's name did you hit the fellow with?” Ga-Bondies asked.
”An old war flail that I picked up in the castle dungeon.” She shook loose of Gyorgibo's embrace. ”I must go to Raviya. All this violence must have been a great shock to her.”
But the Eternal Princess was sitting up, calmly rearranging her mussed snowy hair, while Widd squatted beside her. ”I don't suppose you ever found that wine,” Raviya said to Jiri.
The Queen smiled. ”It was in the first saddlebag I examined. Fortunately, the nyar did not fall on top of it. There is food, too.”
”We can all share it,” Raviya declared, ”and then we really ought to be riding on. I'll be fit once I get a little something into my stomach.” She c.o.c.ked her head at her husband. ”What are you waiting for, old man? Go fetch the victuals from that dead brute and set them out for us.”
King Ledavardis, who had recrossed the water and returned to the group, took Queen Jiri aside. ”Do you think Raviya is really well enough to travel?”
Jiri considered. ”She feels better for the moment, but she cannot last long. It would be best if we carried her in a litter. By following the distinctive tracks of the nyars, we should reach the imperial hunting lodge where the dead Star Man intended to take us. There we will surely find decent food and beds, if it was intended to be our prison.”
”We might discover that the lodge is inhabited by minions of Orogastus.”
”Then we will simply have to subdue them,” Jiri said gently.
The King of the Pirates winked at her with his good eye. ”Right! I don't think we have to worry about Naelore coming back for some time. Not with Queen Anigel to guard and the sorcerer instigating a brawl in the Sobranian capital.”
”Anigel...” The kindly Queen's face crumpled in regret. ”Poor child. I fear that we shall have to leave her fate to the Lords of the Air.”
”There may be something I can do.” King Ledavardis's unlovely countenance brightened as an idea came to him. ”If you will attend to our preparations here, I will try to find the lost amber amulet. I doubt it would harm one who is a friend and would-be son-in-law to its royal mistress. Who knows? The Black Trillium might condescend to aid a certain pirate in coming to Queen Anigel's rescue.”
”You would go after her?” Jiri's eyes widened.
”The late Star Man's sword and miraculous antique weapon would help to even the odds between me and the Queen's captors.”
”Ledo, you are a brave young man,” said Jiri.
The King lifted her hand and kissed it. ”From you, that is the greatest of compliments.”
Chapter Twenty-Three.
IN spite of his intense fatigue, Prince Tolivar tossed restlessly in the hut of Critch the Cadoon, lying on a sack of soft down. They had gone to bed in daylight, but the upper level of the dwelling was dim and cool, with only two tiny latticed windows, one at each end up under the eaves of the thatched roof. From the bare beams hung scores of string bags, each holding feathers of a different hue. The snores of the four Oathed Companions sleeping at the other end of the loft mingled with the faint rumble of surf on the pebble beach outside and the mewing and squeals of griss and pothi and other seabirds.
Kadiya and Jagun had said they would rest downstairs, but Tolivar heard them conversing for a long time with the aborigine and his family. The Prince's promise to his aunt deterred him from using the coronet to eavesdrop)-not that he really cared what kind of mysterious merchandise the Lady of the Eyes was purchasing for her foray into Brandoba on the morrow. Kadiya had made it clear that he would have to remain on the boat with Jagun and Critch, while she and the knights went off into the city, to warn the Emperor that the Star Men were planning some sort of skullduggery and beg for help in rescuing Queen Anigel and the other hostages.
Tolivar had removed the magical coronet from his head and tucked it into his s.h.i.+rtfront, where it would be safe. He had commanded it to wake him instantly if anybody came near him. As he lay there dozing, his fingers gripped the talisman through the cloth.
You are mine, he told it again and again.
And the Three-Headed Monster always replied: Yes.
Although he desired his mother's safe return with all his heart, the knowledge that the adults would surely try to coerce him into giving her the coronet gnawed at his entrails.
It was so unfair!