Part 55 (1/2)
would permit none to harness her, and left after eating.”
Freia's face fell further, injury and disappointment in every line.
”I daresay the gryphon could outspeed Hurricane, if you could find her,” Dewar said.
”She'll be over the Jagged Mountains by now,” Freia said sadly. ”Gone feral-not that she was ever truly tame.”
”Lord Prospero left other writings,” Scudamor said, ”which he said were to do with you, and which he had us sign also, Lady. He said 'twould give the Emperor a p.r.i.c.k in the a.r.s.e to see them.”
”If you can find them-”
”I'll fetch the copies he did not take,” the Seneschal said, and he left the room.
”He's buried them deep in some burrow of his,” Utrachet said. ”Nests in paper, not leaves. Lady, I will not conceal it, Lord Prospero was much oppressed.”
”I cannot believe he agreed to do these things for me. I don't understand any of this. Why couldn't he do as you did and break the bonds? He got away from Malperdy himself. Why couldn't he free me?”
Dewar coughed. ”As a sorcerer, madame, I can give you a number of reasons. In Malperdy, the Bounds around Prince Prospero were forged differently than in Landuc, where you were bound yourself to the prison. Otto, who pent him in Malperdy, had not the art to do so well, and so Prospero was able to use his familiar creatures, whatever they are, to free him.”
”Where is Caliban?” Freia asked Utrachet.
”Not seen in long and long, Mistress-yet that is not uncommon,” Utrachet added.
”At least you're still here,” Freia said mournfully to the Castellan. He bowed his head.
Dewar waited and went on, ”Stonework is a branch of sorcery possibly less familiar to Prospero than to me, as I apprenticed in it. Thus it may be that he does not know the ways in which such Bounds as held you are broken, though he can perhaps see how they are made. I suspect he could have broken them, given much time to study-did he not break Chasoulis's walls, which were Bound by Neyphile?- but such an examination is difficult without time and with interruptions by guards.”
”So you think he couldn't,” Freia said to him.
”That is what I said.”
”I don't believe it,” said she.
”Mistress,” Utrachet said, ”alas, it is true as far as I have seen.”
”How can he renounce sorcery?” she cried. ”It is all he does. He cannot just forget it.”
”There are oaths,” Dewar said, ”which he can be forced to take, which are strong enough to prevent him from using what he knows, or speaking of it, or meditating on it.”
”This is evil, evil,” whispered Freia. ”I knew no good would come of his war. He wouldn't listen to me.”
Scudamor returned and set a wooden box before Freia. ”Lady, here are the writings.”
She opened the box. ”They are in Argos and Lannach,” ! she said.
”Yes,” said Scudamor.
Freia read, and they waited, the sorcerer by the window * and the Castellan and Seneschal to either side of her.
”Why does he do this?” she whispered.
”What has he done?” Dewar asked.
”He has bestowed things on me, my name here and here- t.i.tles, lands I've never heard of-Argylle,” she said, coming to the last, her eyes widening. ”How can this be?” : ”They are t.i.tles?” Dewar asked.
”They say he renounces-whatever it is, each is different- in order to bestow it upon me. So here he says I own lands in ?a place called Penrun, and in Wallong, and others .. .” She leafed through the sheets. ”And here it says Argylle is mine.”
. ”This city, Argylle?” Dewar asked patiently.
”This city?” Freia repeated.
Scudamor, Utrachet, and she all looked at one another.
”It is where you are, Dewar,” she said. ”All of it. The ^jaty-” She made a dismissing gesture. ”That's new. At first ; Prospero called it Garvhaile, but I could never say it prop-and now it is Argylle. But that is not what I don't 452.
'Etizatietfi Wittey understand. Why has he done this? He knows I don't want this kind of thing. We argued about it, I won't take these things from him. He can't make me.”
”They are t.i.tles to lands,” Dewar half-asked, ”and estates, things of that nature-”
”Yes, I guess that's what they are. If that's what it is when you give somebody something they don't want.”
”Then they are deeds of gift of t.i.tle,” Dewar said. ”Pros-pero is a shrewd man, and the Emperor's getting less than he hoped from the bargain, but still much.” He came around the table to stand behind her and look over her shoulder.
”Why?”
”In the agreement Prospero has made, he yields up his t.i.tles to lands to the Emperor-any he has. But before he went to sign the agreement-see, al! is dated and witnessed, and I daresay he is doing the same with some honorable folks of Landuc-he has divested himself of every sc.r.a.p of earth he could claim and places all in your hands.”
Freia stared at the papers.
”You cannot refuse; it's not a question of accepting or refusing. You can ignore the properties, but legally Landuc cannot touch them. They are yours, by perfectly legal gift. Hm, this is rather older. And odder.” Dewar paused and picked up a parchment, written in Prospero's perfect pen-work.
”That was when he had just begun planning the war. I didn't understand what it was, but he made me sign it and he put a copy into some place he said was important. What is this word?” She pointed to a particularly intimidating one.
”This doc.u.ment declares that you are an emanc.i.p.ated freewoman and that he holds no claim on you or anything you possess. It is a thing that is filed sometimes in Landuc when women are widowed and thus become legally wards of their brothers. If the brothers and the woman can come to some agreement, they will grant her the independence to manage property or money left to her by her husband or in her dowry and renounce claims on it. It is very rare,” Dewar Sorcerer and a Cjentteman 453.
added, ”and I've never heard of it being done with a daughter. You must ask a man of law if it is legally possible to emanc.i.p.ate a daughter.”
”He doesn't own me!”
”That's what this paper says.” Dewar sighed.
”I mean he certainly does not own me, and he never did, and he knows it! This is an insult!”
”Not in Landuc. In Landuc it is a scandal,” said Dewar, grinning.
”d.a.m.n Landuc!” Freia banged the lid of the box closed. ”Can you open a Way there? We must stop him from going through with this horrible business the Emperor has forced on him! It will kill him.”
”No, it won't,” Dewar said, ”but it will cripple him, and the Emperor will like that better.”
38.”FREIA, THERE is SOMETHING IN THIS place which tickles my curiosity,” Dewar said, sitting beside her and selecting a nut from the dish before them.