Part 38 (1/2)
game Golias had lent Dewar a wooden pipe, kept with more benign absentmindedness than Josquin's cards. Herne distrusted Dewar, but had lent him a whetstone three days before the battle, and Dewar had dropped it into his essential supply kit and forgotten it, until now.
A stone, a pipe, a pack of cards. They lay on the ground before him.
”What are you going to do?” Freia whispered.
”Shh,” he said, and picked up the pack of cards and put it in the water.
The water was bright with trapped moonlight, so that the cards simply vanished under the light. Freia leaned closer, interested more than afraid.
Dewar sing-songed the last binding of this Summoning under his breath, but clearly, and the s.h.i.+ning water gradually took on an image.
Josquin, with a faint look of perplexity, was looking around himself. He sensed the one-sided Summoning of Seeming and Sound, but couldn't identify it.
Dewar muttered a modification to the spell, expanding the sphere of its vision and shrinking Josquin. The Prince Heir was in a tent, eating his dinner; a triple candelabrum on the table gave light and focus for the spell. A liveried young man stood to one side, serving him.
Freia had crept up, the better to see, and was leaning half-around Dewar's shoulder.
”Who's that?” she breathed.
”Prince Josquin. All we can do is watch and listen. He cannot hear us, but he sensed the Summoning-however, since he's sorcerously ignorant, not only did he not recognize it but he also could do nothing about it.” Dewar smiled unpleasantly. ”I feel like a wolf among lambs. We shall see if we can discover something of his location from this, and whether he is near the prisoners of war.”
”Oh,” Freia said. She s.h.i.+fted her weight and sat down, preparing for a long siege. ”People don't usually say things like, 'Here I am at Castle Cathouse,' do they?”
”I know. It's cues and clues I want. It may take a while, but the connection is strong.” She was sitting very close to 322.
Tfiza&etfi his shoulder. ”It's cold,” he said. ”Mind if we share the blankets and the heal?”
”It is cold,” she agreed, and they rearranged themselves. Dewar, under the baleful, unblinking gaze of the gryphon, put a folded blanket over some of the hay, and they sat on that and pulled his cloak and her other blanket around them, s.h.i.+vering. Freia put a pot of water next to the fire to heat for tea, and they sat watching Prince Josquin, who was dining slowly. Dewar's arm slid around Freia's waist a few minutes later. After a moment's shy stiffness, she relaxed against him. Indeed it was warmer to sit this way.
The Prince finished his dinner and put on a heavy green cloak. ”He's not in Madana, anyway,” Dewar said, half to himself, as Josquin left his tent and crunched over snow. Two guards with a lantern followed him, and the spell now focused on the lantern's flame. The Prince walked among tents, met a man when he was well past them. The man saluted briskly.
”Sir!”
”As you were, Corporal. All quiet?”
”Yes, sir!”
”Keep it so.”
”Yes, sir!”
Josquin was inspecting his sentries. He went slowly around the perimeter of the camp, and the exchanges were all similar.
The water boiled. Freia shook leaves into it.
At the last post Josquin turned back to the camp, trailed by his guards. He stopped at a tent and asked the guard who stood there if Lord Grumond were within, and the guard answered yes and bent down, lifting the flap and announcing His Majesty the Prince of Madana.
”Ah!” said Grumond, standing and smiling. He had been feeding a stove; the spell fed on the light of his oil-lantern. Dewar recognized Grumond: Josquin's Madanese second and sometime lover. Hm. Should it become too intimate he'd break this off.
”d.a.m.n! It's as cold in here as outside. Carry on, by the Sun!”
Sorcerer and a Qmtteman 323.
”Wood's all damp with snow,” Grumond said, ”and it's not taking.” He knelt again and began fussing with the fire. ”Any news, m'lord?”
”No. I'm going to ask the Marshal if he means to kill his own allies sitting out this accursed winter. Apparently Pros-pero escaped from the Baron of Ascolet again, while the Baron was out for a day or two visiting his wife.”
”The Countess of Lys . . .”
”Yes. Heh-heh. The unlucky bridegroom. As soon as there's a front, he'll be the first sent to it, and good riddance. Sneaking around and trying to pull the wool over Gaston's eyes, which can't be done.”
”The upstart b.a.s.t.a.r.d. He and that d.a.m.ned sorcerer of his- How did the devil get out of the castle? Malperdy's never been breached from within or without.”
”I don't know the details, but he had help and there was sorcery involved. I rather strongly suspect our boy Dewar went after him again.”
”Treachery,” Grumond growled at the stove.
”You've got too much fuel in there,” Josquin said, ”that's why it isn't taking. Pull half of it out or two-thirds.”
Grumond did that and added more tinder and a lit twig.
”If he's escaped,” Grumond said, ”our troubles shall soon begin again.”
”Yes. The Prince Marshal commands us to be ready to move in an hour.”
”You had us hold ready anyway. Good thinking, m'lord.”
”!t shan't be over until Prospero's head bounces twice. So the Emperor has said. I shall be glad of it; this has become rather a bore, and I never fiked him terribly anyway.”
Freia moved a little, agitated; Dewar squeezed her against him.
Grumond's fire was catching. He held his hands to its bright light eagerly.
”Now close the stove,” Josquin said, ”and it'll be hotter.”
”Lall's a wonder with this thing. Catches right off for him. d.a.m.ned inconvenient climate, m'lord.”
Josquin laughed. ”For any number of things.”
324.
Wittey ”Golias is going to be itchy now,” chuckled Grumond, standing and closing the door of the stove.
”Where is Lalt?”
”Chasing some wench. I gave him the dinner hour free. Believe he went off with Panzo, you know Panzo.”
Josquin chuckled too. ”Call on me later, when he's back to keep your stove going.”
”Thank you, m'lord. I shall. Cards?”