Part 53 (1/2)
”Tonight then. They get one chance.” Which is more than people have usually given you.
92.
WEI, NORDWEI.
You summoned me, honored Counselor?” Gretslen's voice is low and bows deeply as she approaches.
Ashtaar remains standing, but gestures toward the straight chair before the flat table-desk. ”You may sit.”
Gretslen sits, her eyes darting nervously from the black agate oval on the flat polished wood to the spymistress, then to the window, and back to Ashtaar.
Ashtaar still does not speak, but walks to the wide window that is open. the hangings drawn back to reveal the sunlit hillside that overlooks the river, and the rebuilt bridges above the port itself. After a time, she does speak. ”What is Wei, Gretslen?”
The hard-eyed blonde seer moistens her lips, once, twice, before she finally replies. ”It is the capital of Nordwei. It is a great trading city.””No.” Ashtaar's voice is cold. ”Wei is an idea. All cities are ideas. They exist because people believe that being in a city is better than not being in a city.
What is the idea behind Wei?”
”That... all can benefit by free trade among all cities?”
”You remember that from lessons. Nonetheless, it is true. Wei is more than that, but that is one idea on which it is based. Now... why is the Sorceress and Regent of Defalk so dangerous?”
Gretslen frowns, and her brow wrinkles, but she does not reply. She moistens her lips once more.
Ashtaar turns from the window, her eyes on the seer, waiting.
”Because she will unite the south of Liedwahr, and will have the power to invade and destroy Nordwei?”
Ashtaar closes her eyes, then opens them. ”You can do better than this, Gretslen. If you cannot, I will make Kendra the head of the seers.”
The blonde licks her lips again. ”I do not understand. I have worked hard. I have reported faithfully.”
”You have done all that, and more. What you have not done is think.” Ashtaar turns back to the window. In time, she turns once more and faces Gretslen. ”Tell me exactly what has happened in Defalk.”
”The sorceress has ignored the rebellious lords in Defalk. She has used her powers to destroy Lord Rabyn. She has not destroyed the Mansuuran lancers, but she follows them westward.”
”Now... does the sorceress have the power to destroy the Mansuurans?”
”Yes, honored Counselor”
”Is the sorceress stupid? Or mad?”
”No, honored Counselor.”
”Then why did she not destroy them when she could?”
Gretslen's hands curl into fists. She does not answer. Finally, she speaks. ”I could not say, honored Ashtaar.”
”That is certainly correct. You cannot.”
Gretslen cringes at the scorn in Ashtaar's voice.
”You cannot,” the spymistress continues, ”because you cannot or will not understand. What is dangerous about the sorceress is not her power alone. Nor is it what she believes. It is that she believes and that she will use her power to accomplish what she believes. Now, why did she not destroy the rebels in Defalk first? Because she is intelligent enough to know that they cannot match her face-to-face and because Rabyn and the Sturinnese were the greater threats. Why does she not destroy the Liedfuhr's lancers?”
”Because she wants something more?”
Ashtaar finally nods. ”You must find out what she plans, in Dumar, she molded the succession to support her. In Ebra, she used her power to elevate Hadrenn-but under her control. There is no succession in Neserea, and logically, she should have wiped out the Mansuuran lancers to send a message to the Liedfuhr.
She did not She is not like Behlem's Cyndyth, toying with folk. So... she has a deeper reason. You must find it, and before it is too late.” Ashtaar laughs. ”Or the Council will have to consent to any reasonable agreement she proposes.”
”To the sorceress?” blurts Gretslen.
”Certainly not to Konsstin. The Liedfuhr is shrewd, but his ideals are limited.
Hers, I fear, are not” The spymistress gestures. ”Go. Think upon what I have said, and discover what she seeks beyond victory.”
Gretslen stands, bows, and backs out, as if pleased to escape Ashtaar's wrath so easily.
The spymistress returns to the window, where she surveys the city that is Wei, the city built on one ideal.
93.
Farinelli whuffed once, tossing his head, when Anna flicked the reins to begin the evening's journey from the encampment and the torches that marked it. The sorceress glanced overhead, but the only stars visible were to the south, beyond the slow-moving heavy clouds that had moved across the sky from the northeast earlier in the day. The wind was cool, but not as chill, and there was a dampness in the air that suggested mist or rain.
According to the maps and the images Anna had been able to call up in the traveling mirror, and from what Hanfor's scouts had seen, the Mansuuran forces were camped literally on and around the road to Denguic, not more than twenty kays east of Denguic. The camp itself was on both sides of the road, with pickets more than a half-dek from the center, and scouts stationed farther out.
So Hanfor and Anna had looked for one of the side and back roads-and found one that wound within a quarter dek of the south side of the Mansuuran camp. It wasn't patrolled, probably because there was a steep and wooded gully that separated the lane from the camp, clearly impa.s.sable to mounts and lancers.
Since Anna had no intention of trying to ride into the camp, the side road would suffice for what she needed to do.
”The ride there will take two gla.s.ses, I think,” Hanfor said from where he rode on Anna's left. ”By then, most lancers will be sleeping.”
”And it will take half a gla.s.s to get from where the road splits to where we'll release the arrows?” Anna glanced back behind Kinor to see how close her guards were, but Rickel's eyes were on the road.
”Perhaps longer.”
In the darkness Anna nodded and s.h.i.+fted her weight in the saddle, deciding that late evening was far better than dawn for a sorcerous raid. She reached back behind the saddle with her left band and touched the lutar case to make sure that it was there. She had tuned it earlier, but whether the instrument would retain any semblance of tuning after the ride ahead was another question.
For a time, the sole sounds were those of horses breathing and hoofs striking the packed clay of the road, with the only direct light coming from the torches held by every tenth lancer or so.
”Lord Jimbob wished to come,” Kinor volunteered.”Did you suggest it would not be wise?” Anna asked Hanfor. ”I told him that for both the heir and the Regent to be riding toward an enemy in the darkness was unwise.” Hanfor chuckled. ”I also said that it was possibly unwise for you, but that I had no desire to be called to task for losing both of you. Especially by Lord Jecks.”
”How did he take it?”
”Well enough. I let him accompany me as we prepared, and I explained all I could. I also asked for his trust in not revealing the plan to others.”