Stormed Fortress (16 page)

While Mearn watched, avid, and Talvish stayed neutral, Liesse tucked her impulse to frown behind the bland stare she used on suspicious ambassadors.

Bransian slapped down a block for the vengeance-bent company riding the Pellain road, then flicked the red plug for Vhandon
'
s reserves to harry their bristling advance. His inimical stare raked the tall girl, without deigning acknowledgement of Fionn Areth
'
s come-lately arrival, behind her.
'
You look like a stick dragged in by a dog, and for what? By Dharkaron
'
s Spear, you have some strong nerve! What kind of fool would dare soil my presence, whose ungrateful liege washed his finicky hands of our years of
unbroken
service and loyalty!
'
While Jeynsa faltered, outfaced, Bransian surged forward in anger.
'
Where is his Grace, anyway?
'
accosted the duke.
'
I have some choice words to blister his ears concerning the enemies his doings have pitched like hazed rams against our defences.
'

Liesse spoke, fast, her warning meant to deflect the girl
'
s brazen approach.
'
Child, be at peace. My husband has already heard that Prince Arithon was dispatched by the Fellowship to destroy a cabal of necromancy. Bluster though he will, Bransian knows a Sorcerer
'
s summons could not be refused.
'

Jeynsa flushed, shamed for no obvious reason.
'
So Talvish told me,
'
she admitted. Threatened by Bransian
'
s livid affront, almost anyone would have cowered. This sprig squared her shoulders with mulish bravado.
'
I have seen your walls, your gates, and your fortress, and heard the ground-swell of complaint in your streets,
'
she addressed the duke.
'
I make no excuse for my liege
'
s defection from sharing Alestron
'
s defence.
'
Jeynsa lifted her chin. Gaunt from the trail, irresolute in herself, the core of her stayed determined.
'
As Rathain
'
s chosen steward, I say his Grace was wrong to hand you his callous desertion.
'

'
Toss us a tit-bit we don
'
t already know
'
Mearn snapped, disgusted.
'
Can you tell us where your skulking prince went when he left his charged task at Etarra?
'

Jeynsa tossed her head, no. Grubby hands to scraped leathers, she looked as she was: a half-starved child called onto the carpet by strangers for a thoughtless escapade. Except the steel in her glanced as the weapon
'
s trued edge, whetted and deadly past compromise.
'
I don
'
t care where his Grace has hidden himself. Your cause was ill served. I won
'
t sanction his choice, which leaves innocent families at risk before Lysaer
'
s raised armies.
'

Bransian
'
s iron gaze narrowed.
'
Caithdein
of Rathain, are you officially here to depose a Fellowship-sanctioned crown prince?
'

'
No. Better yet.
'
Jeynsa brushed off Liesse
'
s startled alarm and knelt with bent head to the duke.
'
Alestron, for need, has only to ask. By your leave,
I can bring him.
'

'
What foolery is this?
'
exclaimed Talvish, astonished.

Mearn gave the girl his most fixated stare.
'
Do say how you plan to bid that wild spirit! Even the Fellowship can
'
t rein Arithon in. Or I daresay events would have taken a different,
safe
route through his recent affray at Etarra.
'

Bransian
'
s roar overruled his wife
'
s chiding.
'
Say
again,
you insolent chit!
'
His ice-grey eyes raked with dismissive contempt.
'
Shadow behind Rathain
'
s throne, you may be, girl, but no possible loop-hole in charter law appoints you the right to command your crown prince
'
s presence. No sovereign charge can force his defence inside the realm of Melhalla!
'

Hushed purple, now dangerous, the duke advanced, while Liesse
'
s protesting grasp locked his wrist, and Talvish tensed, a hand closed on his sword for a suicidal prevention.

Yet the girl spoke first.

'
No sovereign charge
'
Jeynsa agreed, uncowed before brittle tension.
'
I hold the sworn bond of Rathain
'
s prince. Last month, in Halwythwood, he sealed a mage
'
s blood pledge that binds him to my protection.
'
Insolent, aware she stopped everyone
'
s breath, Jeynsa hooked the nearest empty chair. She sat down, not caring that Liesse trembled, or that Mearn
'
s whiplash loquacity was finally shocked still. Behind her stiff back, even Talvish
'
s aghast face had drained white.

Jeynsa shrugged, while the duke
'
s menace loomed over her.
'
I need do nothing at all but stay here. His Grace will hear word. When the siege closes, his sworn debt will come due. Prince Arithon must come for me if I
'
m endangered.
'

The point was inarguable: a mage-trained master constrained by life-oath would have no other choice.

Liesse found her voice.
'
My lord, you won
'
t! We can
'
t stoop to extortion, far less on a sanctioned crown heir!
'

"That
'
s risky business!
'
cracked Mearn.
'
We
'
d call down the wrath of a Fellowship Sorcerer for sure!
'

Jeynsa
'
s eyes stayed upturned on the duke. "There will be no opening
'
she insisted, too crisp.
'
Sethvir is gravely ill. Paravia is not endangered. The prime tenet of the Major Balance itself will allow for no grace of appeal.
'

Mearn
'
s fast wit flanked her.
'
Alestron
'
s governed by town charter, that
'
s true enough.
'

Outside the free wilds, unless the compact was threatened, the Fellowship would not effect a direct intervention. By written code, no Sorcerer dictated the fates of a people inside of established town boundaries. Excited, Bransian snatched a chair, spun it backwards, and straddled the seat. An unholy glee transformed his distress as he grappled the wicked obstruction.
'
You were chosen as heir. Jeynsa s
'
Valerient, are you here to tell us you never stood for your investiture as Rathain
'
s
caithdein?
'

The girl raised her chin.
'
My sire
'
s murder gave reason enough to stand back. For Arithon
'
s sake, my father died under torture.
'
Trembling at the edge of exhausted hysteria, she added,
'
Should you cavil at honour? Clan tradition would mediate the loss to my family. Would you not say the prince owes a life debt?
'

'
Dharkaron
'
s Black Chariot and Spear!
'
Mearn swore.

"That
'
s scarcely fair play,
'
Liesse interjected.
'
If a just call for a clan injury exists, your lady mother should be the one to sue for redress!
'

'
It
'
s survival!
'
Duke Bransian contradicted.
'
And a compensation that
'
s due to us, after Mearn
'
s faithful years of spying on
s
'
Ilessid
policy.
'
Arisen again, he gestured to a dissonant clash of steel weaponry.
'
Let
'
s not omit our provision for supply and shelter. Or our staged withdrawal, that reversed Arithon
'
s straits back in Vastmark.
'

While Fionn Areth watched, wide-eyed, and Talvish clamped teeth to keep his own counsel, Liesse blotted damp palms.
'
Such questionable policy will go hard with Dame Dawr. Ath wept, who will dare broach this news to her?
'

The duke
'
s beard split into a sharkish smile.
'
What possible point could the old besom raise?
'

A nitpicking magistrate must back the sweet gist: no investiture meant that a steward
'
s oath did not
yet
tie Jeynsa
'
s feal service in direct line to the Fellowship
'
s compact. Therefore, her case devolved to royal justice, through the dictates of charter law.

'
A damnable irony,
'
Mearn crowed, despite himself moved to triumphant amazement.

'
Victory!
'
roared Bransian, rubbing his hands.
'
By Sithaer
'
s black pit, our weaselly masterbard
'
s leashed. Legally snagged by his short hairs, in truth, and may Daelion Fatemaster spit on the hindmost! We will win the day, and see Lysaer
'
s cause forced to a cringing standstill.
'

* * *

The scried image that unreeled in the quartz sphere flicked out, leaving a breathless stillness. Afternoon at the Forthmark hospice, the southern heat was oppressive, closed behind the domed chamber
'
s leaded windows. Rippled patterns cast by the lozenge glass washed across the clandestine gathering. The four robed enchantresses might have been trapped in amber, for their stunned lack of movement and noise.

The order
'
s wizened senior healer laced her narrow fingers at length.
'
You named this an augury?
'

Few others might question the Koriani Prime, just twenty years of natural age, and scarcely seasoned since her accession. The young woman stared back in her formal state dress, a willowy coquette who seemed displaced in her high seat of office. Yet a steely authority wrapped her slim form. Flame from the bronze brazier at her feet spat glints through her traditional tiara of amethyst and diamond.

'
Our preparations for compassionate relief are in force,
'
the sisterhouse peeress prompted gently. That on-going activity jammed the courtyard outside, with snappish drivers handling the mule-teams cut through by the voices of boy wards packing the wagons with supplies. For days, the sisters in grey robes of charitable service had assembled chests of crystals, philtres, and remedies, set coughing under the sulphurous smoke, as the first-rank initiates wrought the copper talismans to repulse
iyats
and settle the unquiet dead, soon to be sundered by violence.

'
Why rush our departure,
'
the peeress ran on,
'
or squander more of our resource over clan politics? The siege is inevitable. This forecast could extend the damage, but may not come to pass as we
'
ve seen it.
'

"This pact with Duke Bransian is fated to happen,
'
Prime Selidie contradicted. Fair as frost on ripe wheat, she tipped an imperative nod to the seeress, who dutifully veiled the blanked quartz sphere that fire-scarred hands were too crippled to tend.
'
Past question, Jeynsa
'
s revenge will prevail. The duke is desperate. The dowager duchess may cringe over principle. But preservation of the s
'
Brydion lineage must force her support in the end. We
'
re forewarned and poised to act on this opening.
'

The Teir
'
s
'
Ffalenn would stand in defence against Lysaer, and the curse of the Mistwraith would unleash a debacle.

'
Prescience is not proof,
'
the old healer insisted.
'
You would move our order to prying acts for a feckless spellbinder
'
s maundering?
'

'
This time, we have a true prophecy.
'
The matriarch
'
s smile was peaches and cream.
'
Dakar awakened from his errant trance, and could not remember his vision.
'

There, even Forthmark
'
s sceptical seniors lost their last footing for argument. The spellbinder
'
s gift was a wild talent. The intuitive leaps that outpaced his consciousness always held dazzling accuracy. Even the Fellowship Sorcerers had never fathomed the reason. Despite years of scrutiny at Althain Tower, Dakar
'
s precocious Sight remained one of the world
'
s greater mysteries, the source he tapped far beyond the veil, past the limit of cognizant reckoning.

'
Jeynsa
'
s extortion will leave us free rein.
'
Prime Selidie savoured the moment, the ruined, claw fingers masked under silk a gall she would never forgive. At long last she was granted the wedge to sunder clan hierarchy and thwart the Fellowship
'
s compact.
'
Make my palanquin ready. I intend to lead the order
'
s relief for the war in East Halla myself.
'

Forthmark
'
s peeress gasped, swept to epiphany as the telling facts behind Selidie
'
s eagerness finally slid into place.
'
S
'
Brydion never sundered the terms of the charter!
'

'
I should live for the day!
'
Selidie loosed a satisfied laugh.
'
This time, my sisters, the Fellowship Sorcerers have fully and finally tied their own hands.
'

Asandir
'
s lawful sanction had affirmed Rathain
'
s prince. The royal oath of succession, and the formal, initiate ceremony at Etarra had sealed the authority of crown rule. Arithon Teir
'
s
'
Ffalenn,
and no one else,
possessed the right to prosecute Jeynsa
'
s betrayal.