Part 20 (2/2)

”I bid you welcome for him.” Fauren bowed, almost obsequiously. ”He is indisposed and ill.”

”Then have him carried here.” Jecks' voice was cold.

”Alas...” pleaded Fauren.

Anna caught sight of movement on the walls. Was that an archer? She cleared her throat and lifted the lutar, glad she'd thought about the spell earlier.

''All within this faithless hall forever serve in lifelong thrall the regent and the lord she serves ...Defalkan order she preserves.”

Anna tried not to wince, but the rhyme scheme was the best she'd been able to do.

A horrified look crossed the senesehal's face, and his hands curled toward himself, and his heart, and he staggered. His knees buckled, and then he collapsed, writhing, on the road.

A single figure plummeted over the wall and landed with a sickening thud on the ground beneath the walls.

Anna reeled under an equally sickening thud that seemed to rock her skull. Her eyes watered, and she could see clearly, side by side, two images, as if her brain could not integrate the separate visions from each eye-except that the left image seemed ”Warmer'' and the right one ”cooler.” Her once mild headache was scarcely mild, and her free hand grasped the front of the saddle to steady her.

”Are you all right, Lady Anna?” asked Jecks in a low voice.

”I will be.” And I have no intention of collapsing before Arkad's gates because of a little spell.

”Perhaps you should send a squad to see the keep is safe,” suggested Jecks, his eyes still on Anna.

”Fine.”

”Our job, Regent.” Alvar stood in the saddle and turned. ”Green company! Forward!”

With Fhurgen' s and his men surrounding them, Anna, Jecks, and Jimbob waited as the twoscore lancers rode around the still figure of Fauren and through the open gates. Not an arrow flew. Not a blade flashed, but Anna kept s.h.i.+fting her weight in the saddle.

Finally, she reached for the biscuits again. Her head still ached, and her eyes still saw double. Jecks leaned from his saddle and reclaimed the bag. ”Here.”

She ate and drank.

Alvar rode out through the gates alone, a wide smile on his face. ”Your spell worked. You'll not have any trouble.”

Anna finished the last of her water and stowed the bottle back in the loops. ''You're sure?”

”Some of the thralls and peasants were smiling. Some of the others... you'll see.” Alvar turned his mount back toward the keep, raising his blade, and gesturing for the rest of the column to follow.

Anna still glanced at the heavy dark gates apprehensively as they rode through the heavy brick walls and arch and into a courtyard below the main keep. Two more bodies lay in the courtyard, both purple-clad, like Fauren, As Anna reined up, the two armsmen by the double oak doors to the keep prostrated themselves on the stones.

”Lady Anna... Lady Anna.”

”Impressive.” murmured Jecks.

Jimbob' s eyes went from the Synfal armsmen to Anna, then back to the armsmen. ”I don't understand.”

The youth leaned in his saddle toward the sorceress. ”You didn't use a slaying spell, but some people died. Can you slay without asking for death?”

”That's why I don't like to use sorcery.” Anna took a deep breath. Just one reason of the many 1 keep discovering. ”Jimbob... some people. They feel strongly. If I cast a spell that compels them to feel something against their nature, some will die rather than change their nature.”

”A good thing, too, young Lord Jimbob,” rumbled Fhurgen from where he sat on his mount directly behind Anna. ”Anyone who's so against you and the regent's better dead.”

Once, Anna had wondered about anyone being better dead, but after seeing what had happened to Madell-and Dalila and her children-she wasn't so sure if Madell wouldn't have been better off dead.

Certainly, everyone else would have been better off if he were. She absently ma.s.saged her forehead- ”Now what? I suppose I need to find Lord Arkad-if he's alive.”

”We'll find him,” Alvar affirmed. ”You wait where you can be guarded.” He vaulted off his mount, gesturing for several armsmen to follow, and unsheathed his blade.

Anna glanced toward the walls, but while the handful of armsmen watched her, none seemed more than curious. Some had seated themselves in patches of shade afforded by the walls. Anna closed her eyes as she sat on Farinelli. That way, she didn't see double, and the faint sense of nausea and vertigo that went with the double vision disappeared.

In time, Alvar reappeared with the armsmen.

Anna opened her eyes and looked at the captain, pleased that the sick feelings didn't reappear, although the double vision remained.

”Lord Arkad is alive. He sits in his receiving chamber. He be alone.” Alvar shook his head.

”Is it safe?” Jecks asked, his voice so slow it almost rumbled.

”We found no armed men, and all the servants wish to please. Your sorcery was most effective, lady.”

Anna hoped so. Her head still ached, and seeing two images of everyone was a strain. She almost wanted to take a swig of the medicinal alcohol in her pack, but that wouldn't have been the best idea. Perhaps Lord Arkad had good cellars and a decent wine. That she could use. Definitely.

”We will escort you both,” Alvar added.

Jecks nodded. Anna dismounted first, deliberately and carefully, fearing that her balance was not what it should be. The white-haired lord and Jimbob followed her example. After a moment, she decided to bring the lutar.

Jecks held the door as Anna entered the cavernous hail, an echoing chamber that held little but dust, and the odor of mold. They were greeted by a serving girl, thin and nervous, who bowed once, twice. ”Lady Anna, Regent Anna, this way to Lord Arkad's chamber.” She bowed again.

Behind the hall was a corridor running perpendicular to the hall, and the serving girl turned right. Fhurgen stepped up beside her, blade unsheathed, his head turning from side to side.

Alvar walked on Anna's right, Jecks on her left, both with blades out.

Anna frowned...The entire experience seemed almost surreal. Walking through an ancient castle or hold in dim light, surrounded by armed men, treating her like an ancient queen to be protected. Yet her sorcery had apparently turned the keep's defenders into allies, unwilling or not. And you can't take a step without wondering if you'll fall over.

Her fingers tightened around the lutar, her thoughts skittering into the burning spell. She didn't want to flay anyone with fire, but she could if the need appeared. Correction. You hope you can.

The serving girl stopped at the foot of the ma.s.sive yellow brick staircase, turned, and bowed again. ”He's up the main stairs here, in the upper room, Regent Anna.”

Anna nodded, then followed the girl. Fhurgen, Jecks, and Alvar kept abreast of her, with Jimbob lagging, his eyes darting from side to side. Close to a score of armsmen followed the group, but the only sounds were the echoes of boots on brick.

At the top of the stairs, under a huge portrait of a man in unfamiliar armor on a white horse, they turned right, down another brick-walled corridor for perhaps twenty yards to an open doorway.

The time-stained door was open into a square and high-ceilinged room nearly ten yards on a side. At the right end of the room was a raised wooden dais. On the dais was a carved chair, nothing more, An old, white-haired figure sat on the chair.

Jecks slowed slightly, gesturing for Jimbob to do the same.

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