Part 12 (1/2)

”I'm sure he would be most pleased. Most pleased.”

”I'm hungry.” Rabyn gathers the green cloak around him and slips off the gilt throne.

14.

Even with the candles in the wall sconces lit, as well as the lamp on one side of the writing-desk table, Anna's quarters were dim, and the black etched rectangle on the stone outer wall, next to where her replacement scrying minor hung, seemed to s.h.i.+ft with the flickering light.

Anna moistened her lips. How long, how many seasons, or years, before she dared to use the mirror to see Elizabetta? Would a spell even work anymore? The last attempt hadn't, and the heat and explosion bad nearly killed her. Would another attempt, after a season or two, be any better? Would the reflecting pool she planned across the hall make it easier? Her eyes dropped to the redheaded child on the other side of the table, a brown woolen shawl wrapped around her narrow shoulders.

Secca looked at the two black stones in her hand, then at the game board with the intertwined lattices, and the grooved slots designed to hold the stones.

Anna glanced from the white stones before her to the window, and the darkness outside the panes she'd installed a season earlier. Sorcery had some benefits. Then her eyes went back to the redheaded fosterling across the table from her. Secca' s hair was the color of Elizabetta' s, but her face was thinner, more intense, and her eyes were amber, unlike the green of Elizabetta's.

Secca stared intently at the game board, then placed her stones in adjacent slots in the lattice at the edge of the board to Anna's far left. ”There!” She grinned.

Vorkoffe was similar to NIM or NEM-at least that was what Anna thought it was called. That was the box game Anna had played in college, where whoever got the most boxes completed won, but on earth you'd completed boxes with a pencil. In Liedwahr the object was to distribute stones by twos. Five stones completed a lattice. If you surrounded an opponent's lattice, it became yours.

Tonight, Anna was losing, though she'd held her own recently.

is that because your mind's not on the game? Imagine that. Winning or losing wasn't that big a deal, no great gain or loss, but she hated to seem incompetent Anna put her two stories on the board and completed the big center lattice.

”That's wasn't fair, Lady Anna.” Secca offered a hint of a pout.

”You're pouting again.” Anna laughed. ”Do you know that when I was your age...”

”1 know.” Secca sighed. ”You put your lip out so far that your mother said she could ride to town on it.”

Anna wondered if she were repeating herself too much. Early Alzheimer's? Or stress? ”I don't want you to have that lip stuck out all the time.”

Secca completed a corner lattice. ”There! You need be careful.”

”The way you're playing tonight, that's for sure.” Anna juggled the two white stones, looking at the ten- year-old who munched on a corner of the dark bread. Secca certainly hadn't wanted to go home to Flossbend- not at all, even with her father ill, and that tended to confirm Anna's suspicions about Anientta..

Anna started a secondary lattice beside the center one by putting one white stone on each of the open side slots.

Secca s.h.i.+vered again.

Anna looked at her. ”You're cold?'

”I'll be all right.”

Were her lips actually blue? The sorceress stood, and walked over to the hearth, where the wood was stacked, then back to the coiner where the lutar lay on the chest. She began to tune the instrument.

”You shouldn't do sorcery, lady.”

”Just a little spell.” Anna stepped toward the hearth, then began to sing.

”Fire, fire, burn so bright in this hearth tonight, burn well and warm and light and have the chill within take flight.”

The hearth flared into flame, not a roaring blaze, but a warm glowing steady set of flames. Anna smiled to herself ”Oh . . . you didn't have to do that,” Secca said. '”You're cold. I could tell that.” Sparkles flashed before Anna's eyes. One little spell? I can't even do a spell to warm a child? Warning to scream in frustration, instead she turned so Secca couldn't see her face and carried the lutar back to the chest, setting it down gently, despite her trembling hands.

”I wish ...” Secca shook her head.

Anna slipped back to the table, with the game laid out upon it, and eased into her chair, trying not to sit heavily, trying not to show the lightheadedness. Slowly, she reached for the bread and broke off a chunk.

Secca sat up straight in her chair. ''Are you all right, Lady Anna?”

”I'll be fine.”

The redhead reached for the pitcher and, standing on tiptoe, refilled Anna's goblet.

”Thank you,” Anna said after she swallowed the mouthful of bread. She reached for the goblet.

”Would the cheese help?” Secca's voice was small.

Anna had to smile at the concern. ”I'll have some in a moment.” She took a swallow of the water. ”The fire does feel good.”

”I like fires when it's cold,” answered the little redhead, in a voice that reminded Anna all too much of Elizabetta.

”So do I.” Anna put a small chunk of cheese into her mouth, wondering how much she'd have to eat to dispel the lightheadedness.

15.

After a last vocalise, the regent and sorceress cleared her throat. She looked down and studied the drawing of the reflecting pool. Then, the sketch in hand, she stepped from her chambers into the corridor.

Lejun and Giellum straightened as she appeared. The five waiting players s.h.i.+fted from one foot to the other on the stone floor tiles in the dimness of the corridor, holding their instruments loosely.

Anna walked past the players, her boots nearly silent on the stones, to the open doorway. She glanced through the squared arch to the piles of granite and limestone resting on the floor stones of the empty chamber that had once been used for guests-or relatives of the lords of Defalk With a nod, she turned to Liende. ”Are you ready? The second building song?”

'We are ready, lady.” Liende's voice was firm, if by Kaseth, as lead string player, stepped back even with the others. Anna recognized Palian and the thin-faced Delvo The other, a young woman, she did not. All four players lifted their Instruments.

Anna hummed, more to herself, took a last look at the sketch to fix the image of what she warned in her mind then nodded.

The four violins began, then the woodwind, with the smoothness of practice.

Anna began the spell. ( Strophic again) a small voice it her thoughts reminded her. But aren't all spells with more than one verse strophic? She forced her mind to the job at hand, and the words and melody, simultaneously holding the mental image of the reflecting pool.

''Shape this pool in solid granite stone, Ensure its reflection for me alone.

Smooth the base, and let it s.h.i.+ne, when the water holds this sorcery's design...”

”Let the water be; let it see.

Keep from others this pool to be...”