Part 80 (1/2)
As Farinelli carried her closer, she could make out the words: Jusuul-3-d.
Anna glanced from the gray stone along the flat road toward the hamlet ahead, a gathering of several dozen roofs in the hazy afternoon. Behind her, the players began to talk more loudly.
”...how many towns are there?”
”Dissonance ... another town, another seeking spell...”
Anna recognized Delvor' a voice, and she turned in the saddle and called, ”Liende... . would you explain to Delvor that if we find people disloyal to Defalk before they find us, they aren't likely to fill him with arrows?”
A low laugh ran through the guards, and a broad grin crossed Rickel's face.
”Hanfor?” Anna gestured.
”Companies... halt!”
She guided Farinelli back to Liende, offering an ironic smile. ”Chief player. . . we will need another seeking spell.”
”I had thought as much, Regent, and we will be ready.” Liende offered a crooked smile, and raised her voice slightly. ”Even young Delvor will play his best.” Delvor flushed, and subdued smiles and chuckles crossed the faces of the mounted players.
After the column slowed and stopped, Aima and the players dismounted, performing the all-too-familiar procedure with the scrying g1a.s.s.
”Show from Dumar, danger to fear, all the threats to me bright and clear...”
The mirror flickered through a series of images, but Anna could not discern a one because one image replaced another so quickly.
”There's danger ahead... but I can't tell what it is.” Anna pursed her lips.
”The Sea-Priest?”
”Might be.”
She tried again, using the same spell, except with the name Jusuul in place of Dumar The mirror remained clear, showing no danger.
Then came the armsman-seeking spell-but Jusuul harbored no armsmen.
Anna glanced along the flat road toward the roofs of the town ahead. ”There's no problem here, anyway.”
”That cheers me not greatly, my lady.”
It didn't cheer Anna exactly, either, especially since the danger spell had shown nothing when they had pa.s.sed through the three other river towns earlier in the day.
”Does the enchantment hold on the small s.h.i.+eld?” Jecks asked.
”It's still there.” Anna could sense the slight drain on her strength, but that was a small cost. Jecks' idea had already saved her life once. She wondered if the s.h.i.+eld, and the additional spells she'd developed, at his insistence, would be enough. Nothing's ever enough.
”Thank you, chief player... all of you,” Anna said, with a nod of acknowledgement before turning and walking back to where Rickel held Farinelli's reins. She remounted the big gelding quickly.
”We stop for provisions here?” asked Hanfor.
”It's small, but there might be something.” Anna agreed, reaching for her water bottle to moisten her throat before she had to sing again.
Rain, humidity, heat, dust, rain, humidity, with seeking spells every few gla.s.ses, and never a sight of the fleeing Ehara-the pattern seemed unending, yet she'd only been doing it for a few weeks. At the same time, she couldn't help worrying about what might be occurring in Defalk- even though she could do nothing at all about it.
No...she wasn't cut out to be a horse-warrior and a conqueror. Definitely not.
She took a long swallow from the water bottle as the Defalkan forces resumed their advance on small Jusuul.
115.
By midmorning of the fourth day on the road out of Dumaria, Anna was sweating profusely, her s.h.i.+rt glued to her back, the band of her floppy felt bat sodden with perspiration, and driblets of sweat nrnning down the back of her neck.
The afternoon and evening rains had done little more than damp the road dust and raise the humidity, so that the sorceress felt she were tiding through a steambath. Farinelli swished his tail almost constanfly, trying to hold off the continual swarms of small white flies that buzzed around all the horses-and stung.
Because of the profusion of towns, and the delays involved in using spells to seek out any recalcitrant armsmen-and they'd discovered but a handful, Envaryl remained at least another two days away. What bothered Anna even more than the effort involved was the realization that she was reaching but a fraction of the people, just enough to ensure the safety of her forces, and that only so long as Ehara remained on the run. And, of course, it delayed her return to Defalk and multiplied the problems arising there that she'd have to resolve. Still, she was instilling the idea in the Dumarans that it was hard to hide from the sorceress. Great....More fear....Machiavelli would have loved it.
She shook her head and glanced to her left. The Envar River had shrunk to little more than a stream not more than ten yards wide and only a few yards deep. Beyond the river to the south stretched deks of fields filled with knee-high plants, beans, wheat, or corn, as it was called in Liedwahr, and oilseeds of some sort.
Anna's stomach tightened, and she found herself gripping the leather of the reins so hard that her hands had begun to ache. Finally, she spoke. ”I need to use the gla.s.s.”
Riding on her right, Jecks nodded.
”Hanfor,” Anna continued, ”I need to stop and see what Ehara's doing.”
As Alvar and Hanfor brought the force to an orderly and now well-rehea.r.s.ed stop, Liende rode up beside the sorceress. ”Have you need of us, Lady?”
”No...actually, yes, thank you.” Anna forced a smile she definitely didn't feel. ”I'm just looking, but it would help-if it won't tire you too much. I'll need you all when we catch up with Lord Ehara.”
”We could do a spell now and still stand ready.”
”Thank you.” Anna dismounted. Unwrapped the traveling scrying gla.s.s and took a deep breath as she waited for the players to tune, afraid of what the gla.s.s might show. Jecks and Hanfor had also dismounted and stood only slightly back of her as she prepared to sing the spell. Anna's guards held the reins of the three mounts.
She glanced at the mirror where it lay on the lush gra.s.s that seemed to grow everywhere in western Demur, then cleared her throat When the players began, so did she.
”Mirror, mirror on the ground, show me where Ehara's forces may be found...”
The image in the gla.s.s was clear. The Dumaran forces neared a small town.
”That must be Hasjyl ... if the maps are correct,” murmured Hanfor.
Anna squinted as she tried to recall the maps she had pored over. Hasjyl-less than a day's ride from Envaryl, the last sizable town in the west of Dumar before the southern rim of the Westfels, or was it the western end of the Mittfels? The two ranges intersected north of Envaryl, and geography, Anna was discovering, was even less precise in Liedwahr than it had been in Iowa where to her, one cornfield, one low hill, had pretty much resembled another.
She released the image quickly. Jecks handed her a water bottle-her own orderspelled water-even that spell took effort. But everything in a military campaign cost, she'd discovered.
”He will try to fortify Envaryl-or plot some trap there,” predicted the white-haired lord. ”Or before we reach there.”
Anna nodded, wondering why she bridled so much every time Jecks offered some totally obvious observation. She handed back the bottle and wearily lifted the lutar once more.
”Show from Dumar, danger to fear, all the threats to me bright and clear...”
The mirror flickered through a series of images, but Anna could nor discern a one because one image replaced another so quickly. She canceled that spell even more quickly.