Part 34 (1/2)
”I see no mark.”
The girl's palm was blank, a thing which seemed to surprise even her.
The Feich gaped. ”I-I don't . . . It was there moments ago, I swear it.”
”Well, it's not there now. Release the child.”
They hesitated. Ladhar lifted his head and roared, ”Release her! She is no more Taminist than I am! You have made a mistake. See that you don't make the same error twice. Our Regent will be none too happy if you hara.s.s and maim his law-abiding citizens. Now, go about your business. While you loiter here, the real threat to Creiddylad escapes your notice.”
Grumbling, bemused, they did as ordered. The crowd dispersed, some following the soldiers, some going about their own business, a few staying behind to comfort the still weeping mother and daughter.
Eventually, the two came to Ladhar's side, their faces maps of grat.i.tude with salt rivers marked in flour.
”How can I thank you, Osraed?” the girl mewed. She seemed unutterably fragile still, cowering at her mother's side.
A fragile heretic.
What have I done? Ladhar shook himself. ”I've not yet received a copy of Osraed Wyth's work. May I keep this one?”
Daughter and mother exchanged glances. ”Of course, Abbod. With the Meri's blessing.”
He nodded, pulled up his hood and reined his horse toward Ochanshrine. He arrived there to find that his presence was required at Mertuile. Immediately, said a dour Caime Cadder.
At Mertuile, he and Cadder were taken directly to the throne room where Feich sat in state, surrounded by kinsmen and allies. There seemed to be an inordinate number of armed men about, but then the Regent had only this day survived an attempt on his life.
”Ah, dear Abbod! How kind of you to join us!”
Feich beamed from his borrowed throne, seeming very relaxed for a man who had come so close to death. Ladhar could only suppose he must have been drinking something stronger than the summer wine he served at state suppers.
”I've brought you here that I might ask a supreme favor. I have recently made an agreement with the Marschal, Shak Sorn Saba, to affect an alliance between ourselves and the Banarigh Lilias Saba of El-Deasach for the purpose of returning Cyneric Airleas to Creiddylad. Pursuant to that, we will be moving our forces south to El-Deasach and from there into the Gyldan-baenn east of Hrofceaster.”
Ladhar was astounded. ”The Banarigh has consented to this?”
”She will consent when her Marschal pet.i.tions her to do so. He travels on that mission even as we speak, and has a.s.sured me of success. This means we will be traveling on a most crucial campaign immediately upon his return. We will need all the aid the Eibhilin realm has to offer. I intend to take the Osmaer Crystal with us.”
”The-! That's unheard of!” The Abbod found he could only stand and quiver. ”The Osmaer has only left Ochanshrine once in all history-for the coronation of Kieran the Dark at Cyne's Cirke.”
”Ah, wrong. It also left once in the hands of Bearach Malcuim, Kieran's son. He removed it clandestinely to Halig-liath, I recall, in an attempt to keep it from the hands of Buchan Claeg.”
Ladhar willed his face to remain immobile and his blood to lie still in his veins. ”I had forgotten. For all that his intentions were good, it was still theft-possibly blasphemy.”
”Yet it contributed to the salvation of Caraid-land, did it not?”
”I wouldn't deny it.”
”And I . . .” Feich spread his fingers upon his breast. ”I, at least, am asking permission of the Osraed charged with the Crystal's protection and care.”
His thoughts fevered, Ladhar considered his response. It must depend, he supposed, on how intent Feich was on having the Crystal with him. If he was set on it, he would simply take it, just as Bearach Spearman had . . . just as Ladhar had, himself.
The Abbod glanced at Feich's face and recalled being buffeted by a wind of Feich's calling. The Regent did nothing that was not driven by his full will. It would be futile to resist him. Besides, the real Stone of Ochan was several miles away in the hands of well-meaning, if misled souls whom Ladhar knew he could trust with it. Only the fraud would take the trail to El-Deasach. There was really no harm in granting Daimhin Feich his wish.
Ladhar made a display of his meditational pose, then nodded once, heavily. ”Very well, Regent. Your point is well taken. I can concede that extraordinary circ.u.mstances require extraordinary remedies. Yes, of course you may take the Osmaer Crystal on your campaign.”
Feich inclined his head. ”Thank you, Abbod. You honor me. Now . . . where is the Osmaer? It is not in its place at Ochanshrine.”
The p.r.o.nouncement dropped into an oppressive silence. In the bottomless pit that opened up in his soul, Osraed Ladhar flailed for balance. Should he dissemble? Should he admit his subterfuge? Should he collapse to the floor and beg mercy?
”No,” he said finally. ”You're quite correct. Last night, I replaced the Osmaer with a stone of similar size and appearance.”
Feich seemed taken aback, affording Ladhar a tiny victory.
”You admit your treachery?”
”Treachery, lord? Protecting the Osmaer from Taminists is hardly treachery.”
”Protecting it?” Feich aimed a furrowed glance at Caime Cadder, who stared at the toes of his shoes. ”How so?”
”It came to my attention that the Taminists were planning to make an attempt on the Crystal. An attempt to remove it from Ochanshrine and spirit it up to Halig-liath.”
”Indeed? How did that 'come to your attention?'”
”I was favored with an aislinn in which two people approached me and tried to lay hands on the Stone. I immediately replaced it with a crystal left to me by Osraed Bevol. Later, as my aislinn foretold, I was approached in the Shrine by . . . by the Taminist Osraed Fhada and Lealbhallain, who tried to coerce me to give up the Stone.”
”This false Osmaer . . . it was still there when I tried to Weave this morning?”
Ladhar nodded. ”I thought it safest that the Osmaer remain hidden until you had dealt with the Taminist threat.”
”Then, where is the Osmaer hidden, Abbod? You may speak of it here, we're among allies.”
”It's hidden in a place known only to me. For safety's sake. I was unsure whom I could trust.”
Feich looked past Ladhar to the man at eternally at his shoulder. ”Is that so, Minister Cadder? Is the Osmaer's hiding place unknown to you?”
”It is, lord Regent.”
Feich rose from the throne and meandered off the dais to approach Ladhar.
”You possess greater foresight than I gave you credit for, Abbod. I suppose I must thank you for taking the Osmaer out of harm's way. And you know, Abbod, I would thank you . . . if I half believed your story. Unfortunately for you, I don't.”
Ladhar was once again consigned to the bottomless pit. From its depths, all he could do was stand and tremble as Feich went on.
”You see, Abbod, your faithful lieutenant, the able Minister Cadder, observed you switching the Stone. He saw you carry it to your private chambers, which he later searched to find the exact hiding place. He found it, knowing your habits. But when he checked the hiding place again, it was gone. Naturally, he suspected, when he discovered you'd left Ochanshrine today, that you'd taken the Osmaer with you.” Feich brought his face close to Ladhar's, searching him eye to eye. ”Where did you go, Abbod? Did you take the Crystal to your Osraed friends at Carehouse? Or did you have another destination?”
”The Osraed at Carehouse are Taminists,” said Ladhar stiffly. ”I am not a Taminist, nor shall I ever be one. They are not friends, but adversaries.”
”Yet it seems you may have given them the Stone of Ochan.”
Ladhar was not used to lying. Except, he now saw, to himself. Whatever had made him believe allegiance to Daimhin Feich was in any way allegiance to Caraid-land or, more importantly, to the Meri? His distrust and hatred of Taminy had blinded him, as it had apparently blinded Caime Cadder.