Part 9 (2/2)
”Oh,” said Lunete. ”Ah.” She sipped some wine. ”Well, it is complicated. In effect, Ottaviano kidnapped me.”
Dewar raised his eyebrows, watching her over the rim of his heavy old-fas.h.i.+oned goblet.
”In effect,” she emphasized. ”Baron Ocher was appointed my guardian by Emperor Avril on the death of my parents when I was a child; he was no particular friend of my father, but when he pet.i.tioned for the position, the Emperor granted it to him. The terms of my parents' will and the custom in this area have kept him from a.s.suming real power over Lys; I have lived here sometimes, in Champlor sometimes, and in Sa.r.s.emar sometimes, but in Sa.r.s.emar more than anywhere. When I was sixteen Ocher pet.i.tioned the Crown for permission to wed me. He was denied. I am told this was probably through the interest of Empress Glencora. My mother Sithe of Lys was a lady-in-waiting of Queen Anemone, and she knew Princess Glencora in Landuc. The Baron lately has made every effort to-to woo me, although I find him entirely disagreeable. I refused and made myself as unpleasant and unmanageable as I could, while keeping close ties in Lys. Ottaviano was a captain in Ocher's service who maneuvered himself into the position of escorting me as often as possible-” She smiled, her cheeks flus.h.i.+ng red for a moment.
”I see,” Dewar said, also smiling. Parents, guardians, friends, lover-forces that acted on other people, but not on sorcerers. It was an engaging change from his usual work. He envisioned Lunete's story as spheres circling spheres, colliding at times.
”I did not know he was Prince Sebastiano's son at first.”
Another sphere, its...o...b..t tangent. ”I daresay he's kept that very quiet. If the Emperor had known of such a poten- Sorcerer and a QtntUman 95.tial troublemaker, he'd have had his throat cut/'
”Oh,” Lunete said, and she paused before continuing her tale. ”My twenty-fifth birthday is four weeks away. Sa.r.s.emar, for reasons of his own which I cannot fathom, recently decided to use force to make me consent to the marriage after all. If I marry as a minor, you see-”
”Your a.s.sets pa.s.s to your husband. Lys.” Dewar nodded. Territory was something of importance to everyone, even here in Pheyarcet where there was only one ruler over the Well. If Lunete was Lys, then she must act for Lys first, always.
”And if I marry as an adult Lys remains mine. Yes. I couldn't let that happen to Lys. I am the last of Lys blood; only the stones have been here longer. My great-grandfather was made a knight by King Panurgus in the War when he conquered Proteus and seized the sacred Well from Noroison. Lys is part of me; I belong here. It would be a betrayal of the very soil to let Ocher or another rule here while I yet live.” Lunete straightened slightly. Her voice rang with pride.
Dewar smiled. ”So you ensured this did not happen.”
Lunete nodded tautly. ”Ottaviano rescued me and we fled Sa.r.s.emar. That was when we met you. We contracted our betrothal before we left. Ocher knows about that, because Otto made the captain of the guard in the place where I was held sign the agreement as a witness. Now all we have to do is hold Ocher back until we are wed.”
”A pretty tale, madame. I presume you have selected for the wedding the most auspicious day you could as closely as possible following your twenty-fifth birthday,” Dewar said. The system would stabilize, he thought, around this new twin planet, Lunete and Ottaviano, and all would go on, with them and around them, comfortable and foreordained.
She relaxed, smiling back at his smile and humorous tone. ”But of course.”
”How delightful. So Ocher, if he comes to war, shall be attempting to seize your person, or, failing that, to kill Ottaviano.”
”Or to keep us apart on that day. Anyone could guess 96.f&zað Wittey which day we chose; it was the best one in the calendar for a month, Otto said. I wished to pet.i.tion the Crown to remove Sa.r.s.emar from his position as my guardian for the balance of my minority, but Otto thinks that such a pet.i.tion would be refused. It might even end with Sa.r.s.emar being given me by the Emperor, and then Lys would no longer be mine but his, my family's blood erased by his. Besides, by the time a messenger rode to the Emperor in Landuc and returned, I would be of age-so we may as well do as we will. I know it is right.”
Dewar began to ask why, and stopped. ”And Lys's army remains yours,” he said softly. Even in Noroison, the men of Lys were famed for their fighting skill and spirit. He had forgotten an element in his mental model: Ascolet, Ot-taviano's Ascoiet, Ottaviano's territory. As Lunete sought to preserve Lys, so must Otto burn to hold Ascolet-but Ascolet had been taken from him by the Crown. Dewar's pang of recognition and sympathy surprised him. It was an old story in Phesaotois, and an old story here in Pheyarcet too; in the end, everything came down to land, and the Source.
”Yes. If Sa.r.s.emar promised additional men to the Emperor, the Emperor would be sure to give me to him.”
”While Otto will use them against Landuc.”
”We haven't agreed on that yet. It depends on what Sa.r.s.emar does. I will not leave Lys vulnerable.”
”Wise of you.” Lunete's explanation bridged wide gaps in the gossip Dewar had collected this morning. The Emperor would be very annoyed to find the armies of Lys suddenly turned against him on behalf of Ascolet-if that was what Lunete intended. If Ottaviano refused them, he was a fool, and Otto did not seem a fool. ”The Empress, you think,” he said after a moment, ”takes an interest in you.”
”I have never met her; I have never been to Court. But Mother knew her. People here said, when Baron Ocher was refused me when I was sixteen, that the Empress must have done it.”
”The Baron might have had tacit Imperial approval for his recent plan to marry you against your will, then,” Dewar Sorcerer and a Qentteman 97.remarked, and poured more wine for both of them. ”If the Emperor desires Lys under Sa.r.s.emar but did not wish to arrange it openly, he might have let Ocher know that this would be overlooked.”
”Ye-es,” agreed Lunete slowly. ”I suppose he might.”
”You can count on it not being as simple as it looks, when monarchy is involved,” Dewar said.
”May I ask, Dewar, why you take an interest in Lys suddenly yourself,” Lunete said. ”There is a saying about sorcerers and simplicity.”
”I've heard it,” said Dewar, ”I am curious.”
”Curious?” she said, when he did not elaborate.
”Yes. Or perhaps I should say, I was curious. Now I am interested.”
”Interested?”
”I find Ottaviano's case against the Crown compelling,” said Dewar. ”I would like to see him succeed in it.”
”You would?”
”Yes,” he said. ”I have every sympathy for his undertaking. I understand that people in areas like this would regard a sorcerer's attention as more a threat than a possible benefit, but mine is benevolent.”
”Benevolent,” repeated Lunete.
Dewar nodded, holding her eyes with his. She had wide, bright brown eyes with straight, barely-curved brows over them; they dropped from his suddenly and a wash of color went over her cheeks.
”However,” Dewar went on, ”it is very difficult to demonstrate mere goodwill.”
”You helped us yesterday,” Lunete said, aligning her silverware precisely. ”For no reason.” She glanced at him from under her lashes.
”That made Ottaviano less than happy,” Dewar said, ”and more than suspicious.”
”He is worried,” Lunete said softly.
”You are too.”
”Yes, of course.”
”If an occasion arises,” he said, ”in which I might be of a.s.sistance to either of you, it would give me great pleasure ”Etiza&etfi to grant any aid in my power. And lest you concern yourself over with what fee I might burden you in return, hear this: I do not sell my sorcery.”
Lunete looked up at him, still high-colored, and said, ”You are not anything like a sorcerer, or not like the ones I have heard of.”
”Of what sorcerers have you heard?” Dewar asked. The general ignorance of the Art in Landuc was appalling.
”Oh, Prince Prospero, let's see, Esclados the Red, Lady Oriana of the Gla.s.s Castle, the Spider King, Neyphile, Foul Acrasia-”
”I see. An unsavory collection.” Dewar sipped his wine. ”The scorn heaped on the Art here is deserved, if those are its most noteworthy pract.i.tioners.” They were of undistinguished repute in Noroison. Lady Oriana was the only one worthy of serious thought, and she had been but a minor sorceress before supporting Panurgus and leaving Phesao-tois-and had not, after all the travails of exile, become his consort. ”I am of a more retiring and scholarly bent than any of them, having deliberately cultivated a certain . . . distance between myself and my peers.”
”I'm afraid it's not very usual to even meet a sorcerer.”
Dewar smiled crookedly. ”If one were wise, one would not wish for such a meeting. It is usually dangerous, or at least unhealthful.”
”But I am glad to have had the opportunity.” Lunete smiled at him again. ”How did you happen to be travelling that way?”
Dewar selected a pale gold-white pear from the tray of fruit-last fall's, but still good-and peeled it carefully as he spoke. ”I am looking for something of interest to me.” His head was tipped back and he addressed the fruit through half-closed eyes.
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