Shadow Magic (20 page)

“May not the Shadow-born have others?” said a Shee in yellow. “Worse, what if they discover the lost Gifts while we sit waiting? I do not like this plan of stopping and considering. Wisdom sometimes must make haste.”

“I do not seek to keep us from action,” Medilaw said. “Only to prevent us from acting too quickly and making a grave mistake. You need not worry about the Talismans; the Lithmern can have no more of them, or the Veldatha would have detected them. Is this not so?” He turned toward Illeana, who nodded reluctantly.

“As for the Gifts,” Medilaw went on, “they were lost two hundred years ago, by the same humans who now beg our aid.”

“You forget, Medilaw, that we now have ties of blood in Brenn,” said a Shee in blue, looking significantly at Har and Alethia. “Shall we abandon our own?”

“One who willfully abandoned her people may not expect aid from them in return,” Medilaw replied. “Yet you are right; they have some claim on us despite their human blood. We should offer them sanctuary among us until this matter is resolved.”

Alethia leaped to her feet, eyes blazing. “What makes you think we want your sanctuary?”

All along the hall, heads swiveled away from Medilaw toward the rear seats where the humans sat. Har rose to stand beside his sister, his agreement evident in his expression. Maurin hesitated, then remained in his chair. The Shee had not offered him shelter and Brenn was not his city; his support would matter little under such circumstances. He noticed that the minstrel, Tamsin, had remained seated as well, and looked no happier about it than he felt.

“We didn’t come to ask for sanctuary,” Alethia continued angrily. “And we will not beg for help that is not offered freely. Keep your magic!”

Around the hall, Shee murmured in approval, and Medilaw went pale.

“A city of humans has no chance against the Shadow-born!” he said. “Without our help, you will die.”

“Then we will at least die trying to do our duty,” Har said.

Another approving murmur swept the hall. Medilaw, though plainly enraged, seemed to realize that he was losing the ground his earlier reason had gained. With visible effort, he shrugged and said coldly, “If you refuse our assistance, there is no more to be said.”

“Perhaps we will surprise you,” Alethia retorted. “Courage is no bad weapon against spells, or so I have learned.”

Someone chuckled. Medilaw glared about the hall, white-faced and trembling. Then he snatched up the Talisman of Noron’ri from the table in front of him. “Half-breed human!” he cried, raising it aloft in both hands. “What good is your courage now?”

Alethia stepped backward involuntarily. Maurin leapt to his feet and threw himself in front of her; an instant later Har joined him. Medilaw’s eyes never left Alethia. His lips parted in a grimace that might have been intended as a smile, and he spoke a single word.

As the Shee councilors stared in frozen disbelief, a muddy little cloud formed above Medilaw’s head. Medilaw’s harsh grin widened, and he raised the Talisman higher and pointed at Alethia. The muddy cloud thickened and began to move forward.

Automatically, Maurin reached for the sword he was not wearing. Cursing the rules that had forbidden him to carry a weapon, he started down the hall toward Medilaw. If he could get the Talisman away from him…

One of the Lord Advisors seemed to have been struck with the same thought. Leaping to his feet, he wrenched the Talisman from Medilaw’s hands. The dark cloud quivered and evaporated. Medilaw howled, and in blind and unthinking rage attacked the purple-clad figure that had thwarted him.

It was quickly evident that the other Lord Advisor was both younger and faster than the former High Minister. He had no trouble holding the enraged man for the brief time it took the palace guards to close on the table. Medilaw quickly vanished behind a wave of black and silver uniforms. A moment later he was led away, cursing hoarsely, and Maurin returned to his seat.

In the shaken silence that followed, Iniscara spoke for the first time. “My thanks to you, Lord Advisor Herre,” she said quietly. “You will not find me ungrateful.”

Lord Herre bowed. He laid the Talisman of Noron’ri on the Lord Advisors’ table once more, then returned to his chair. The silence continued while the Shee lords and ladies stared at the Talisman. Then Iniscara rose to her feet, and her voice rang clearly in the still room.

“Do all of you understand what has just happened?” she said. Her eyes raked the hall; no one spoke.

“There is no longer any question what we must do,” Iniscara went on. “If the Shadow-born can reach even here, to corrupt a Lord Advisor in Council, we cannot wait to combat them at a time of our own choosing.”

Heads nodded in agreement, but the Queen ignored them. She turned first to Murn and then to Merissallan. “I hope your people will join us, but if not we will not condemn you. For this would be a difficult task, and there are those here who would prevent us, as you have seen.”

“I may not speak for the Wyrds,” Murn said. “Yet I shall tell what I have seen and learned. I do not think the Arkons of the Glens will refuse.”

“The Neira will do what we can,” the sea-man said. “I can speak for all of us, but I do not know how much use we may be; Brenn is a long way from the ocean.”

Iniscara nodded in satisfaction. She turned back to the Shee councilors. “Three thousand horsemen will leave Eveleth at once for Brenn, with Lord Advisor Herre to command them,” the Queen said. “The Talisman of Noron’ri will be destroyed immediately, lest the Shadow-born use it to work more mischief among us. You have seen and heard it.”

The Shee lords and ladies bowed in acknowledgement of the Queen’s commands. There was a rustle of movement; the Queen raised a hand and it checked at once.

“Lest any misunderstand me, I will do one thing more before you leave,” the Queen said. “Nember!”

Imperiously, she stretched out a hand. Slowly, the High Minister rose and handed her the silver staff of his office.

Holding the staff in both hands, Iniscara raised her arms high. “I am Iniscara, Queen of Eveleth, and of Sheleran, and of the Shee! As those before me have done, so will I do! You are witnesses to this.”

The Shee rose and responded with one voice, “We are witness, and will uphold the oath.”

A wind swept through the hall, blowing the Queen’s robes out behind her. It grew stronger and stronger as Iniscara lowered her arms; then, as the end of the staff touched the floor, it died abruptly. “You may go,” she said.

T
HE SHEE LORDS AND
ladies rose and bowed to the Queen, then turned to file slowly from the Council hall. A few cast curious glances sideways as they passed the little knot of humans, but most of them studiously avoided looking in their direction.

Beside Alethia, Jordet sighed and shook his head. “This is indeed a day of wonders,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Har asked.

“You saw Iniscara take up the staff and you have to ask? It has been long since a monarch of the Shee has claimed the staff and the full power of royalty,” Jordet replied. “But come; if you intend to go with our troops, you must hurry.”

“That many men can’t possibly prepare to leave in only a few hours,” Har objected. “They can’t all be in Eveleth now. It will take time just to collect them.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Jordet said, smiling. “I was up most of the night helping them get ready. Iniscara ordered the guard to alert a week or more ago, when word first arrived of Alethia’s kidnapping; she’s had them preparing to leave ever since news of the siege arrived.”

Har’s face lightened. “Then the Queen intended to send help to Brenn all along!”

“Perhaps,” Jordet said cautiously. “But I cannot say what might have happened if Medilaw had not lost his head. However, the troops will be leaving almost at once. Are you coming?”

“Of course we’re coming!” Har said.

“Then stop arguing, and let’s go,” said Alethia. “At the speed you’re moving, Brenn may fall before we get there.”

Har looked at his sister in alarm. “Allie, there’s going to be a
battle
when we get to Brenn! You can’t come with us.”

“Why not?” Alethia said. “I’m almost as good an archer as you are, and it’s my home, too. What else should I do?”

“You will stay with us until matters at Brenn are settled,” said a voice from behind Har.

Everyone jumped. Turning, they found Queen Iniscara looking at them with an unreadable expression on her face.

Har gave a relieved sigh. “If you are willing to let Alethia stay safe here, I will be very grateful, and my father also, when he learns of it.”

“Stay here?” said Alethia indignantly. “But…” She stopped short, realizing suddenly that the offer was a shrewd political move as well as a kindness on Iniscara’s part, for the Shee council still did not like or trust humans. If Bracor’s daughter stayed behind as a sort of hostage, Iniscara would have less trouble enacting her plan to aid the human city. Alethia was a child of one of the Noble Houses of Alkyra; she knew better than to risk offending a powerful and touchy ally. Her head turned involuntarily toward Iniscara, and their eyes met.

“You will not be disappointed in your stay here,” Iniscara said softly. “And I think you will have better things to do than fighting Lithmern, for a time at least.”

Alethia shivered a little as the Queen looked toward Har. “You will go with the army to Brenn; Herre will need someone with him who can advise him about the land around the city. Your friend will accompany you. The bard may stay with us if he so chooses—it is long since one of his kind passed this way.”

The rest of the arrangements were quickly made. To no one’s surprise Tamsin decided to remain in Eveleth with Alethia; the opportunity to learn more of the Shee was more than the minstrel could pass by.

Despite Har’s doubts, the departing troops were ready to leave by midday. Worrel and Rarn had already left for Glen Wilding, accompanying Murn, who promised to ask her father to send some of the Wyrd archers to join the Shee on their way to Brenn. Alethia was surprised to find that Jordet would be accompanying them to act as liaison with the Wyrds. She was both pleased and saddened by the news. Jordet was almost the only Shee she had met who would speak to the humans without the mask of haughty indifference, and she was beginning to suspect that her two weeks in Eveleth might be rather lonely.

Maurin was not happy about leaving Alethia behind in Eveleth, but he could hardly object when neither Alethia nor Har seemed to think it inadvisable. Then, too, a battle was no place for a gently bred noblewoman, no matter how great her skill with a bow. Still, it seemed wrong not to take her home when that had been the whole purpose of their setting out. If Maurin had other reasons for disliking the arrangement, he refused to admit them even to himself.

Tamsin and Alethia accompanied Jordet, Har, and Maurin to the city gates, talking as they rode. The conversation was all too short, for the two humans had been positioned toward the head of the column of Shee cavalry, and they had to depart almost immediately. Maurin could not resist looking back as he and Har rode out of the city; he managed to catch one more glimpse of Alethia, framed in the open gateway, and then she vanished behind the rows of black-clad riders.

The Shee troops made good time through the mountains. Maurin was impressed by the horsemanship the Shee exhibited, as well as by their mounts. The riders made camp only when the growing darkness made further travel too dangerous, and they set off again at first light the following morning. The horses the Shee rode were trained for speed, even though the footing was often treacherous. The pace was hard, but by evening of the second day the column was out of the mountains and traveling through the Wyrwood. The going became easier, for though there were trees to wind their way through, there were no steep climbs to tire the horses, nor piles of shattered rock to slide underfoot.

On the third day, they met the Wyrds. Grathwol himself led the archers, and Murn was also among them. Though it was barely midmorning, the two columns halted to enable the commanders to confer. Almost as soon as they dismounted, Maurin and Har were summoned to Commander Herre.

They found him seated in a hastily erected tent with Grathwol, Murn, and several Shee. A large map was spread out in front of them, and they were studying it closely.

“… outnumber us by nearly two to one, even with the Wyrds to join us,” a Shee was saying worriedly. “I don’t care if they’re humans; those aren’t odds that I like.”

Maurin saw Har frown. “Don’t forget about the troops inside Brenn,” he said.

The occupants of the tent looked up, and Herre motioned Har and Maurin to be seated. “More humans,” muttered a Shee wearing a general’s uniform, but he did not speak loudly. Maurin glanced quickly at Har, but he did not seem to have heard the remark, and Maurin relaxed.

“Some of the Lithmern troops must be on the south side of the river,” another Shee said. “If we could keep them trapped there, we would have a better chance.”

“Of the ten thousand Lithmern, my scouts tell me that about a fifth are on the south side of the river,” Grathwol said. “The rest are camped on this bank, just west of Brenn and south of Brandon forest.” He smiled, showing pointed teeth. “It would seem the Lithmern prefer to avoid both the Wyrwood and Brandon forest. Perhaps they do not like trees.”

Herre smiled and turned toward Har. “Are there any fords near Brenn?”

“No,” Har said. “We dredge regularly to keep the river deep; the bridges inside the city are the only ways to cross within half a day’s ride.”

“Then the Lithmern are depending on boats to keep their troops in contact,” Herre said thoughtfully. “Grathwol, could your scouts get close enough to sink them before we attack?”

Grathwol snorted. “The Lithmern sentries would not notice an army at midday, much less a few Wyrds by night. Unless they have filled the river, we can sink them.”

“Then we will not be quite so badly outnumbered,” said the Shee who had spoken first. “Still…”

“How many Wyrds could hide in Brandon forest?” Maurin said, looking up from the map.