The Song Of The Lioness Quartet - In The Hand Of The Goddess Part 23

The King inclined his head, refusing to stare at the very young Master as his Court was doing. "You have the right, Lord Thom."

Thom removed the shield cover, revealing a black tower on a red field: the Trebond arms. Taking it from Coram, Alanna settled it on her left arm. It was light and strong, and she could feel the protecting spells on it. She bowed to her brother and to the King and Queen, then glanced around, startled by the sound of cheers. They were cheering her! She shook her head, blushing. They had cheered when Jonathan was knighted, of course, but this was something else. He was the heir, and an heir who was a knight was far more powerful than an heir who wasn't. But she had found a place in their hearts, and they cheered her because they loved her.

Thom went with her to her room to put the shield away. He greeted Faithful solemnly as Alanna placed the shield on her bed in order to look it over. "I thought you weren't going to be here after all," she observed, touching the shield with a bandaged hand. "This is beautiful."

"I was held up because I wanted to make it secretly. Watch this." Smiling slightly, he pa.s.sed his hand over the shield's face. Alanna stared as the black tower faded, leaving instead a great gold cat on its hind legs.

"What is it?" she asked as the cat faded and the tower reappeared. Thom helped her put the cover on the shield and hang it in her dressing room with her other arms.

"It's a lioness rampant, of course. For when you reveal what you really are. Let's go to dinner; I'm starved."

Alanna led the way to the banquet hall, thinking. A lioness rampant. I like it.

10: To Duel the Sorcerer

THE second feast of the Midwinter Festival had begun, with nearly every n.o.ble of Roald's Court present. Thom excused himself to Alanna with a wink and went to sit with Duke Roger, who showed no sign of bad feeling toward a younger and maybe stronger, sorcerer. Alanna watched them talk for a few moments before turning her attention to other people there. The Queen had made a rare appearance. It was the first time Alanna had seen Jonathan's mother in public since her illness more than a year before. Lianne seemed to be holding her own for a while, but slowly she turned very pale. From her seat among the other knights, Alanna could see beads of sweat on Lianne's face, and the Queen's fingers trembled as she tried to raise her wine gla.s.s. When she began to cough, Duke Baird rushed to her, his face tense and worried.

Remembering her vision in the Chamber of the Ordeal, Alanna grabbed the ember-stone at her throat. She bit her lower lip; as she had feared, Queen Lianne was glowing a faint but steady orange.

Suddenly Alanna was filled with the need to act, and to act now. If Roger had placed magic of any kind on the Queen, there would have to be physical evidence of some kind, somewhere. Even the most powerful sorcerer had to have a real object as the focus of his thoughts.

Alanna waited until the feast was in full swing before excusing herself, promising her friends she would only be gone a few moments. Now was the time, while Roger's attention was fully occupied with Thom and the questions her brother represented. The King would not rise for another hour at least. Alanna planned to use that hour.

Feeling as if she had gained a new life and a sharper way of looking at things in the Chamber of the Ordeal, she hurried back to her chamber. Most of her belongings were packed, since she would be moving in the morning to her own rooms. Faithful, exiled from the feast, was waiting for her.

You are taking a risk, the cat said as Alanna searched her trunk for the new lock-picks George had given her. If he catches you, you will be very dead.

"Then he mustn't catch me. Agreed?" Alanna shoved the leather envelope holding the picks into her tunic. "Come on. You stand guard."

Faithful trotted along as she took the back halls that led to Roger's rooms. There must be insanity in my family, too.

Alanna grinned but did not answer. Roger's suite of rooms was located very conveniently for Alanna's purposes. A small flight of stairs twisted up and away from the hall, ending with Roger's outer door. While Faithful stood guard at the foot of the steps, Alanna set to work, hidden from view by the turn in the wall.

Carefully she inserted the first pick into the lock. It flared and melted. Alanna quickly dropped it, swearing silently at her own stupidity. Of course Roger would put guarding-spells on his doors. She eyed the lock resentfully, deciding what to do next. It would take too long to try a spell that would lift the guards, and she was in a hurry. There was another way. . . .

Placing her bandaged hands on the lock, Alanna drew a deep breath. Fiercely she shoved her magic into the lock, literally exploding Roger's spell. After her eyes cleared from the blinding flash that resulted, Alanna wearily tried another lock-pick. It took the work of only a second before she heard the tumblers fall into place. The door swung open, and she whistled softly for Faithful. The cat ran swiftly inside; Alanna closed the door behind them.

There was no point in searching the main rooms. What she was looking for would not be here. People came and went in these rooms every day; Roger wouldn't leave anything important there. In the rear of the suite, however, was a closed door that led to Roger's workroom. It too was locked.

Using her ember-stone as a guide, Alanna could see orange fire gleaming around the door. She had expected that. As with the front door, she had no time to figure out which spell would lift the guards, even if she knew the right spell, which she doubted. The guards on this door would be far more powerful than those on the main door.

Steeling herself, Alanna placed her hands against the door and thrust her magic out. This time she fainted.

Faithful brought her around by licking her nose with his rough tongue. Sleep later, he said.

She sneered elegantly at her pet and opened the sorcerer's door.

All around the room were counters littered with instruments, herbs and books. Alanna glanced at the books; she knew some of them, and she had heard of others. Most were books on magic. Some she could not read because they were written in a completely alien script. She noticed seeing-crystals of varying sizes and colors: clear, pink and black. One was blood red, and she refused to touch it. The large charcoal-burning dishes stood in the center of the room for heat. Instead of torches, Roger used lamps that burned with a bright, unflickering light.

"Do I hear splashing?" she asked Faithful softly. She looked around carefully, at last spotting a fountain at the back of the room. Water poured from a spout in the wall, dancing over rocks covered with flowering moss before falling into a deep basin. Curious at the fountain's existence, Alanna went to look at it more closely.

Two things caught her interest: a silvery-white veil that seemed to hold several objects, and a doll, immersed in the fountain's basin directly under the waterspout. For a moment Alanna wanted to touch neither bundle nor doll, but her new-found resolution forced her to pick both up. She carried them over to one of the counters, drawing a lamp close to examine her finds.

The doll was a water-worn wax image of the Queen, perfect from the real black hairs on its head to the duplicate of the Queen's favorite gown. The doll had obviously been in the water for a long time: the features of its face were barely recognizable and the color had washed from its dress.

Alanna knew this spell: the sorcerer made an image of his victim and placed it in running water. Depending on the sorcerer's materials and power, and the strength of the water, the one represented by the doll wasted away quickly or slowly, fading into death. Duke Roger had used the finest wax money could buy, and Alanna suspected he had taken the doll out of the fountain from time to time, to make the Queen's illness and eventual death seem more natural.

Her hands trembling, Alanna put the doll aside and looked at the bundle she had also found. Lifting it less carefully this time, she saw the tear in the side too late. Another tiny doll fell out of the bundle, striking the table. Alanna yelled, her side suddenly one ma.s.sive hurt. Biting her fist to keep from making any more noise, she picked the image up. It was one of her, of course. She examined the bundle closely. The tear was long and thin, nearly invisible against the fine-woven silk. Her hands throbbed, and she remembered how they had felt the morning of her ordeal, as if she was trying to tear a hole in tightly woven cloth. Drawing her dagger, she cut the string that held the bundle closed and carefully opened it up on the table's surface. Figures that bore eerie resemblances to the King, Duke Gareth, Myles, the Lord Provost, and even Jonathan lay revealed before her eyes.

"Of course, " she told Faithful softly. "Now I understand. He wanted none of us to see what he was up to, so he put our images inside this veil. We couldn't see; and as long as men like Duke Gareth or Myles or the Provost didn't see anything wrong, no one else felt they could say anything."

What are you going to do now? Faithful inquired, twitching his tail. You've broken all those silly rules of Chivalry to get yourself this far. What next?

Alanna smiled grimly at the images, carefully piling them on top of the veil. "Roger can't be allowed to go on this way," she replied. "When he comes back tonight, he'll know the images are gone; he may even know I took them. So, if my friends and I are to survive his finding out, I'd better do something about Duke Roger of Conte right now."

SHE returned to the banquet hall, the veil and its contents in her hands. Stopping for a moment to talk to Myles and Jonathan, she asked them to join her before the King's table. Thom was exchanging stories with Raoul and Gary, but when he caught his sister's eye, he excused himself and came to stand next to her. Steeling herself, Alanna walked up to the long table in front of the two thrones, bowing low to the King and Queen. Only when she felt Myles, Thom and Jonathan at her back, did she begin to speak.

Great Mother, help me with this, she pleaded silently when Roald acknowledged her. I don't know if this is how you wanted me to do this, but it's the only way I know.

"Majesty," she said clearly, making sure everyone could hear her voice, "I have done a dishonorable thing." The great hall was suddenly quiet. Alanna drew a deep breath and went on. "I broke into a man's chambers tonight. I knew this was dishonorable, and I did it anyway. What I did was wrong. What I thought to find-what I did find-was far worse."

She placed the veil and the images inside it on the table before the King. Lianne cried out in horror, shrinking away from the little dolls made to represent her, her husband, her son and her brother. The King and Duke Gareth were pale; the Provost, peering around his neighbor's shoulder, turned red with fury. Thom reached out curiously for a moment before remembering it would not be a good idea to handle those images. There was no reading the emotions either Jonathan or Myles was feeling-perhaps it was just as well.

Alanna looked at Duke Roger. The sorcerer could see what she had put before his uncle; he was gripping the arms of his chair with white-knuckled hands.

"Shall I tell them where I found these, your Grace?" Alanna challenged loudly, looking the Duke of Conte in the eyes. "Shall I tell them about the little fountain in your private workroom where the Queen's image lay under running water, wasting away little by little? Shall I-"

"Liar!" Roger snarled. "Majesty, Sir Alan has long been jealous of my influence with you and my cousin Jonathan. He now seeks to dishonor me in your eyes by showing you these dolls he created and accusing me of casting such spells!"

"For what reason?" Alanna asked King Roald. "Why would I wish the Queen harm? She is the mother of my Prince and my friend. She has been kind to me. I do not gain by harming her, just as I do not gain from veiling the sight of those who could stop me from stealing a throne that isn't mine!"

"Liar!" Roger cried, standing to point an accusing finger at her. "Do you deny that you have the skill to place such a spell? Do you deny you have the knowledge, when I taught image-magic to you myself? You planned to kill their Majesties, so that when Jonathan became King, you would be the most powerful knight in the realm."

"That is very interesting." Myles looked at Roger, his gentle eyes hard. "Carry that thinking a step further and suppose the death of Prince Jonathan. Who would gain? I submit, Roger, that you would gain as the next King of Tortall."

"It is a plot against me!" Roger cried, looking around him. "Myles tries to turn you all against me while this young man gives false evidence!" He stopped, waiting for the King to say something. The only sound in the banquet hall was the Queen weeping softly into Duke Gareth's shoulder. Roger looked for a friendly face and found none. His mouth tightened. "I demand my rights. I demand trial by combat, myself against my accuser." He pointed to Alanna. "If I lie, Sir Alan will win by the will of the G.o.ds. But I say I will win, because I am innocent!"

The silence grew as everyone waited for King Roald's decision. The King picked up the image of himself, turning it over in his fingers. "You may have the combat," he said.

"As the accused, I may choose the time," Roger said quickly. "Let it be now, before Sir Alan's lies spread and poison people's minds against me."

Alanna felt chilly and very old. She should have known that Roger would want to fight now, while she was still weary and sore from the Ordeal. She looked at her bandaged hands.

"This time or any other is of no matter to me," she said, her voice bored. "I believe Duke Roger to be plotting against the lives of my Prince and my friends. The sooner this is resolved, the sooner they will be safe."

"In one hour," ruled the King. "We meet in the Great Throne Room."