Robert Hughes - The Wizard in Waiting

“Yes. Yes, he rather does amuse me.” The Queen caught Carlad’s eye and pointed to the sword Rosha still held loosely before him. The guard nodded and crept up behind to snatch it away. Surprisingly, Rosha offered no resistance. Once again, Ligne was puz The WizarJ tn zled. “You seem… so docile, suddenly,” she said. “Are you injured?

111?” She seemed genuinely concerned.

“I’m n-neither.”

“Perhaps the lad is… winded,” offered the fool from the floor.

“Winded? B-b-by the likes of you?” Rosha snorted. “B-better thank your g-good fortune I d-d-didn’t cut your wind altogether, funnyman.

D-don’t forget that I st-still could.”

“I won’t! I won’t!” Fallomar answered earnestly.

Rosha turned sightlessly toward Ligne’s voice. “My Lady, s-since you have this fool to entertain you, c-c-can I be allowed to lie down?”

“Certainly, poor dear!” Ligne gushed, nodding permission to Carlad to take him away. “I’m afraid you might be sick!”

“Only sick of you,” he muttered.

“What was that?” she asked. She really hadn’t heard him.

“N-nothing. P-perhaps you’re right. Fool!” be bellowed. “Right here,” said Fallomar, who had gotten to his knees.

“I’ll be expecting those lessons if the Queen permits?”

“Of course I permit,” Ligne assured him, “I think it’s an excellent idea. But I want you to rest yourself today. I’m afraid this fighting has tired you…” Her hands fluttered in the manner of a mother who feels helpless to help. As Rosha and Carlad disappeared through the door, she turned and made her way back to sit on her throne. Pelmen watched as she leaned on an armrest and propped her chin on her hand. The young man’s sudden change of mood perplexed her.

“My lady, I appreciate the reprieve ”

“Don’t thank me,” she muttered.

“Thank him.”

“I shall. And… I will give him lessons in speech ”

“Leave him alone for now,” Ligne growled. “Something’s the matter with him.”

“Nothing, I trust, that couldn’t be cured by a little light…”

“What are you talking about?”

“The ah leather helmet.”

Oh,” Ligne said glumly, leaning back to gaze at the tnuraled ceiling.

“I leave that on him because he wants to kill me.”

“Perhaps, if he could see you, he’d be less inclined to slay you.” As he spoke, the fool frowned at Kherda and motioned him out of the throne room. The Prime Minister stared at him, affronted, until he realized the fool was trying to help him escape before Ligne remembered her fit of pique. Kherda scooped up his skirts and scooted out the door, nodding gratefully to the fool as he passed. Pelmen winked, then went on: “After all he could have killed you just now and he didn’t”

Ligne studied the mural high above her head with great attention. “You really think so?”

“My Lady,” the fool said, “I had an excellent vantage point.”

The woman’s eyes drifted down from the ceiling to settle on the fool.

“So you did.” She thought for a moment then, chewing absently on a fingernail. “Say something funny,” she suddenly ordered.

“Something funny.”

“That’s right.”

“I just did.”

“What?”

“I said, “Something funny.” And to some, it would have been.”

“What?”

“Funny. But evidently not to you.”

“I said, say something to amuse me, not to confuse me,” Ligne snarled.

“Ah, yes. But, I ask myself what amuses the Queen. The pain of others, it would seem, just by observation. Perhaps I should fall on my face?”

“Now that would be funny.” Ligne smiled.

“I thought as much.” Fallomar smiled back. “People laugh at different things. So I will need to stay on my toes at all times remembering always that what would most amuse my Queen is watching those toes be pulled off.”

Ligne chuckled, then suddenly grew serious. “You know, I knew you were coming,” she said with a dreamy, faraway look in her eyes.

If her words stunned Pelmen and they did he didn’t.”

The Wizard in Waiting show it. “How? You have a fortune teller stashed under your throne there?”

“Close.” She smirked mysteriously.

For the second time that day, Pelmen felt a little dizzy from the shock.

Though the winds were high, the blue-flyer that Jagd had dispatched wasted no time. Like every other bird of its species, it would not rest until it had accomplished the task that a human had assigned.

Jagd’s special attention to his protege’s face meant that the bird would surrender its message to no one but Tahli-Damen a security precaution that Jagd intended to remind the young merchant of the next time they spoke.

The journey took the bird all that day and into the morning of the next, but it did not rest until it saw below the five-turret arrangement that matched the picture Jagd had placed in its mind.

The bird alighted on a broad cross painted in blue on the roof of one of the turrets. A handler stooped immediately to pick it up, but it eluded several attempts, and the handler soon realized this bird was intended for someone special. As Tahli-Damen was the highest ranking member of the family present, the bird handler started down the ulterior stairs to find him, and the bird hopped along behind from stair to stair. It was quite oblivious to the comic image it presented as the handler escorted it into Tahli-Damen’s presence with a grin. The blue-flyer nonchalantly hopped onto Tahli-Damen’s desk and extended its foot. As the promising young merchant untied the message bound to its leg, the blue-flyer dismissed the trip from its mind. It had accomplished its task. It had earned a good meal and a rest.

“From Jagd?” asked a young woman standing by a window on the far side of the room.

“That’s right,” Tahli-Damen replied, studying the page intently. Then he looked up. “He’s not coming.”

“As we expected.” She nodded and smiled furtively. “I can’t say I’m disappointed. This will make you the ranking member of Uda’s delegation!”

“I appreciate your confidence in me, Wayleeth.” He smiled grimly. “But I’m afraid I don’t share it. I am too young to exercise any influence with the other houses, and I fear I won’t have much more say with our own. He hides it well, but your father is still angry that I was promoted over him.”

“You deserved to be!” said Wayleeth. “I love my father dearly, as everyone knows. But everyone also knows that he’s been a do-nothing supervisor, who’s been outmaneuvered by Tohn mod Neelis ever since we were moved to Ngandib-Mar!”

“Don’t be unfair,” Tahli-Damen scolded. “He was a good leader in Lamath. He couldn’t help it if Jagd matched him against a man more Mari than merchant!” Tahli-Damen had cared little for Tohn mod Neelis.

The man had very nearly cost him his life by not allowing him sanctuary in the midst of a battle. “Naturally Tohn did a better job of meeting Mari needs he knew the Mari mind as well as the Mari market. But he’s gone now, and Flayh’s as La-math ian as your father. We’ll reestablish Uda’s dominance here, and we may do it this month. In fact, I’m sure of it.”

Wayleeth’s eyes glowed. “I’m sure of it too with you in charge.”

Tahli-Damen blushed and deflected the compliment with a brusque, “We need to be on our way. The conclave doesn’t begin until tomorrow, but there will be informal preliminary negotiations in the halls and corridors tonight, and I don’t intend for Uda to be ignored.” He grabbed his scarlet cloak, slung it around his shoulders, and would have swept past her and out the door had she not caught him by the waist and pulled him around to face her.