Part 24 (1/2)
Chapter Twenty-Four.
THE army of Orogastus rode stealthily into Brandoba early in the evening, entering a few at a time through the little-used Hunters Gate at the northeastern edge of the sprawling city. Following the Star Master's orders, the warriors and Guildsmen melted away un.o.btrusively into the crowds of festival celebrants. At a designated time they were to rendezvous with the partisans of the Archd.u.c.h.ess Naelore at the central pleasance, where-if all went well-the ma.s.sed invaders would receive the command to storm the palace.
Every follower of the Star was identically costumed in a voluminous cape of glossy black plumage and an avian hood-mask with distinctive golden eyes. The single exception among the dark flock was a rather small person riding pillion behind one of the blackbirds, who wore the modest gray and white feathers of a sea-griss over a simple woolen robe.
”Stop wriggling,” Naelore said to her pa.s.senger, ”or I will command my Star to sprinkle you with pain.”
”If you would just unfasten the bonds on my wrists,” Queen Anigel replied, ”I could cling to the saddle skirts and would not constantly be in danger of losing my balance. It doesn't help that the headpiece of this wretched bird costume keeps slipping over my eyes.”
The Archd.u.c.h.ess laughed. ”Release you? Not likely, witch-queen! Even deprived of your loathly Flower, you are doubtless capable of dire magic.”
”I am no witch,” Anigel said mildly, ”and the Black Trillium you seem to fear so much only protects my life and cannot harm anyone.”
”Hah! Tell that to the Guildsmen who tried to remove it from your neck while you lay senseless in Castle Conflagrant. Their fingers were scorched to the bone by magical fire when they touched that cursed amulet.”
”Indeed? I did not know that my trillium-amber was capable of such a thing. I would not willingly have caused your people injury.”
”I suppose,” Naelore said in a scathing voice, ”that you likewise intended no hurt to those you burnt alive during your escape across the basin of flaming geysers!”
”I regret the death of our pursuers,” Anigel said, ”but they fired upon us with an ancient weapon, endangering the lives of me and my companions. It was that selfsame weapon that ignited the flammable vapors.”
”So you say,” Naelore retorted. And when Anigel would have made further expostulation, the Star Woman ordered her to be silent.
Orogastus, who had entered the city gate last of all, had been riding immediately behind the Archd.u.c.h.ess and her prisoner. He now spurred his mount and came up beside them. His pale eyes glimmered beneath the black beak of his bird headpiece.
”I will go on ahead a short distance,” he told Naelore, ”so that I may scan the throng more readily for our enemies. It is unlikely that the Star will give me Sight of Kadiya, since she is almost certainly s.h.i.+elded by her talisman. But I might descry others of her party if they should stray from her immediate vicinity.
Keep alert, and beware any woman bearing a broken dark sword.”
The sorcerer urged his steed forward through the growing crowd, and Naelore and Anigel followed. They were soon caught up in a great river of costumed people, some on fronialback but most afoot, making their way toward the city center in advance of the fireworks display at the pleasance. Groups of musicians, moving with the mob or ensconced on balconies overlooking the streets, labored to play above the cadenced din of birdwhistles, noisemakers, and drunken singing. From time to time roisterers would smash eggs filled with glittering confetti and fungus spores, and there would be sneezes and shrieks and good-humored curses until the airborne nuisance dissipated. Orogastus and Naelore used their Star magic to fend off the nose-tickling dust, as well as to impel obstructive festivalgoers out of the way.
At length, having come within a few blocks of the imperial palace, the two sorcerers and their prisoner turned off the packed, noisy avenue onto a much quieter side street. It was lined with stately mansions all decked with bird effigies and feathered banners. Twinkling lanterns of green and gold, the heraldic colors of Sobrania, hung in the tree branches and stood atop the high outer walls of mortared stone that enclosed most of the houses. There were numbers of costumed people loitering about, but they seemed strangely subdued in demeanor, cl.u.s.tering in silent groups beneath the trees or sitting on the curbstone side by side. Even in the uncertain light, Anigel could see that every one of them was dressed in red feathers.
Naelore rode stiffly, holding tight to the reins and never turning to look at Anigel. It was plain that she was holding back her beast in order to keep well behind Orogastus.
Suddenly, she said, ”Tell me about your sister Haramis!”
The surprised Queen began to recite the duties of the Archimage of the Land, but this was not what the Star Woman wanted to know. ”Is your sister beautiful? Describe her to me.”
”Haramis is much taller than I,” Anigel said. ”She has black flowing hair and silvery-blue eyes with wide pupils, in the depths of which lie minute flecks of golden fire. She is certainly beautiful, but one is more likely to take note of her commanding aspect and the aura of preternatural power that seems to enshroud her.”
”Does-does she love him, as he loves her?”
Taken aback, Anigel nonetheless knew instinctively what the other woman meant, as well as the motive behind the question. ”I think Haramis wishes with all her heart and soul that she did not love Orogastus. His life-goals are utterly at odds with her own. She cannot help loving him, but she has long since renounced any hope of consummating that love.”
The Star Woman's posture softened, as though she had been relieved of some burden. When she resumed her questioning her manner was less surly. ”I know that your sister Haramis possesses the third piece of the Threefold Sceptre of Power. What does this marvelous instrument look like?”
”The Three-Winged Circle is a short wand with a kind of hoop on its end. The wings themselves are tiny, perched at the top of the hoop and enclosing a piece of trillium-amber identical to my own. Haramis wears the wand on a chain around her neck.”
”Is she able to make full use of this Circle's magic-or is she only minimally competent with her talisman, as are the witch Kadiya and your prodigal son with theirs?”
Anigel paused momentarily before answering, wondering why the Star Woman had not put the query to Orogastus, then thinking that perhaps she had... Still, there seemed no good reason not to give reply.
”I doubt that anyone now alive truly understands the working of the Sceptre of Power. It is an artifact of the Vanished Ones, supposedly so formidable that those who invented it were ultimately afraid to use it. Taken apart, the three pieces of the Sceptre that are called talismans are much less powerful. Haramis is certainly more adept at wielding hers than is Kadiya, but her greatest magical skills are quite independent of the Winged Circle, deriving rather from her sacred and beneficent office.”
”Beneficent? But she is a tyrant, as are the Archimages of the Sea and the Sky! The Star Master says that the three of them have manipulated both humanity and the Oddling Folk from time immemorial. They oppose all scientific and social progress because it would threaten their positions of power.”
”Nonsense,” said Anigel. ”I cannot speak about the Dark Man in the Moon, but both my sister Haramis and Iriane, the Archimage of the Sea, are kindly guardians who would not dream of oppressing the peoples of this world. They have made solemn vows never to use magic to harm a living soul.”
”And yet,” Naelore said, ”Haramis once a.s.sembled the Sceptre and attempted to kill the Star Master with it!”
”No,” Anigel corrected her. ”Haramis, Kadiya, and I used the Sceptre to turn the sorcery of Orogastus back upon him when he would have destroyed us Three and conquered our little kingdom.”
”That is not what the Master says!”
”Orogastus often bends the truth to suit his purposes.”
”He has never lied to me, nor to others of the Star Guild.”
Anigel sighed. ”And has he promised that your Guild will rule the world with him if you a.s.sist him in his vainglorious schemes? I must tell you that he once tempted Haramis with the same ridiculous proposal-”
The Sobranian woman whirled about in the saddle and regarded Anigel with blazing anger. ”You silly fool!” she hissed. ”What do you know of the Master's grand and n.o.ble intentions? Rule-? So he will! But not to satisfy some overarching private ambition. Rather he seeks to save the world from the hideous cataclysm toward which it hurtles, all unknowing!”
”What cataclysm? What are you talking about?”
”Unless Orogastus saves us, we are doomed. This world of ours totters on the brink of destruction, racked by mysterious internal maladies set in motion long aeons ago. The Star Master learned details of the awful peril while he was imprisoned by the Archimage of the Sky. And only the Master knows the method by which we can be saved.”
”Then why,” Anigel inquired with sweet reasonableness, ”doesn't he simply get on with this exalted work of his? Instead, he has sent out secret agents to foment sedition and discord all across the continent. He kidnapped and held hostage the legitimate rulers of six countries. And, unless I miss my guess, he is here in Brandoba tonight hoping to engineer the overthrow of Emperor Denombo, so that you can seize the Sobranian throne! If the true intent of Orogastus is the salvation of the world, why is he embarking upon a war of conquest?”
”The necessary remedy for healing the world is a drastic one,” Naelore said earnestly, ”requiring much sacrifice from the population as well as the exertion of ineffable magic. Left to your own devices, you proud, ignorant rulers would never be able to control your people during the days of rebalancing. You are too cowardly, too undisciplined and selfish to do what must be done. It is necessary for an all-powerful leader to compel you.”
Anigel would have remonstrated indignantly, but Naelore swept on, speaking like one entranced. ”I myself am no more than the willing servant of the Star Master. When I become Empress of Sobrania, I will do whatever he asks in order to forward his grand strategy. Later, when the work is done and the Sky Trillium s.h.i.+nes above our land-after the Sempiternal Ice is banished forever and the Vanished Ones walk among us again- then I will share in the Master's triumph. And perhaps I will even win his love, if the Dark Powers will it.”
Anigel was reduced to speechlessness.
The great continental ice cap somehow melted? The Vanished Ones returning? It was absurd!
But the world was out of balance in some fundamental way. Haramis had been convinced of it, citing the severe earthquakes, the widespread volcanic eruptions, and the disastrous weather that had afflicted so many parts of the continent during recent years. However, the Archimage had never hinted that these events might be portents of planetary doom.
Or had she?
Involuntarily, the Queen's bound hands lifted to her throat, seeking the comfort of her Black Trillium amulet. But the Flower was gone, just as Haramis was gone, and there was no one to answer her questions except herself...