David Drake - Master of the Cauldron

Rosen had been right to change the troop dispositions. Garric had scattered squads throughout the palace to remind Wildulf's intimates that they were part of the kingdom. Now that open rebellion had flared, splitting the royal forces was asking for them to be massacred in detail.

Liane was talking to one of her clerks, a mousy little man of indeterminate age. He nodded and went into the palace. He was unlikely to arouse attention even though he was walking quickly.

"Right," said Garric. The ammonite in the sky had dissipated while he and his troops jogged back through streets deserted due to terror of the omen. It'd been another illusion, an empty threat; but a threat nonetheless. "Hold them here in readiness. I'm taking Attaper's men into the palace to arrest Balila's wizard and at least discuss matters with Balila herself. I don't know how Wildulf's going to react to that."

"It's going to happen no matter how he reacts," Lord Attaper said in a bleak voice.

Garric looked at his guard commander sharply. "Yes it is, milord," he said. "But I trust you and your men haven't forgotten that we're in Erdinnot to start a war. If you have, I'll take Lord Rosen and a section of his men in with me."

"Honored to accompany you, your highness!" Rosen said, stiffening to attention. The Blaise nobleman looked pudgy, but there was real muscle under the layer of fat and a quicker intelligence than Garric was used to finding among soldiers.

"Don't get above yourself, Rosen," Attaper said. There was a chuckle rather than a snap in his voice, the tone you'd use to reprove a puppy who wanted to play at an inappropriate time. "Your highness, we kept the lid on at the temple an hour ago. We'll do the same here till you give us different orders. Let's go talk with Dipsas, shall we?"

Several of Wildulf's mercenaries guarded the palace entrance, but there wasn't the full squad that'd usually been on duty. Garric wondered if others had run away when the image appeared in the sky. In any event, those present got out of the way as he and his escort of Blood Eagles trotted through the archway and into the central plaza.

One of the Sandrakkan courtiers stood there alone, hugging himself with his eyes turned to the ground. Garric remembered him from the levee following the coronation.

"Lord Ason," Liane said-trust her to remember a name she'd only heard once. "Where are the Earl and Countess?"

The courtier twitched and continued staring at the stone pavers. "Wildulf's in his Audience Hall right there," he said. "I don't know where she is."

He looked up at last. With a flare of anger he added, "But if she and that wizard of hers are behind the things that're happening, I hope they're in Hell! I don't care how much Wildulf thinks of her, I hope they're in Hell!"

"Can't say I disagree with him," said Carus, who'd stayed watchfully quiet in Garric's mind since the fighting ended. The ancient king was a constant presence and resource, but he knew better than to be distracting when Garric had to concentrate.

Nor do I, Garric agreed silently as he and his escort double-timed across the courtyard. The Blood Eagles' boots made a sparkling cacophony on the stone. And it may be we'll be sending them there very shortly.

Somebody'd started to shutter the colonnade between the courtyard and Audience Hall. Only a few of the hinged partitions had been closed, though. They formed a fourth wall during severe weather, but under normal circumstances the open plaza was additional space for the public to hear the Earl's pronouncements.

The threat hadn't been weather this time, but the thing in the sky. Earl Wildulf sat slumped on his throne, leaning on his left elbow. A score of courtiers and servants remained in the big room, but others must've fled.

The pair of servants who'd started to shutter the room were sobbing by a half-closed partition. They'd worked blindly until a pin had stuck in its track. Terror hadn't left them enough courage or intelligence to overcome even a trivial setback; instead they'd broken down completely.

The priestess, Lady Lelor, stood by the throne. She turned on Garric and shouted, "You don't know what it's like! You've only seen them a few times. If you'd had to live with those things in the sky for a month, you'd understand why we're, why we're…"

She couldn't finish the sentence. She didn't need to, of course.

"Earl Wildulf," Garric said without ceremony. "Where's your wife, and particularly where's the wizard Dipsas?"

"She hadn't anything to do with it," Wildulf said, straightening. Anger replaced his previous dispair and he regained some of his manhood. "They were both here when it started. They weren't responsible!"

"Dipsas may not be behind the apparitions," Garric said, "but she was in league with Tawnser. I'm not going to give her another chance to bring the kingdom down. You say she was here? Where's she gone, milord?"

"You can't talk like that in my court!" Wildulf said. His belt and sword hung over the back of the throne; it wasn't practical to wear the long blade while seated in an armchair. A pair of Blood Eagles stepped behind him and removed the weapon.

"She and the Countess went off together," Lady Lelor said in a harsh voice. "Toward the Countess's apartments. They left as soon as thething appeared in the sky."

She turned to Earl Wildulf and said, "Milord, I've pretended there was nothing happening for as long as I could. That Dipsas is a demon from the Underworld and she's tricked your wife into helping her!"

"They couldn't have done this!" Wildulf shouted. "They were here in the chamber when it started!"

"They may not be behind the things in the sky," Lelor said, "but theyroused whatever it is that's doing it. Doing that and worse things. I'm as sure of that as I am of anything in the world."

She shook her head and added miserably, "I don't know what else there is I can be sure of now. Not even the sunrise, the way those things cover more of the sky each time they appear. And they last longer besides."

Garric glanced toward Liane. She was at an inner doorway, talking to the clerk she'd sent as messenger and to a younger man in the sash and tunic of a palace servant. The servant was protesting volubly.

The spy, Garric realized. The spy who marked the route for us to follow through the tunnels beneath the palace.

Aloud to Lady Lelor he said, "Were the Countess and her wizard alone?"

"They had her boy with them, that was all," Wildulf himself said. "The boy and her bird."

In a tired voice Wildulf added, "She brings the boy to bed with us. It's not natural and I know it, but I can't say no to her."

"Your highness?" Liane said. "Master Estin knows the direct route to where Dipsas has probably gone. I suggest that we go with no more than a squad of soldiers-"

She didn't bother to say "you send" because she knew full well that Garric wasn't going to leave the task for others.

"-to arrest her, because a larger force will be dangerously cramped in some of the passages."

"Right," said Garric. He turned to his guard commander and continued, "Lord Attaper, pick an officer and ten men who aren't bothered by tight places-"

He grimaced.

"-and wizardry to accompany me. We'll go immediately."

"I'm the officer," Attaper said, as Garric knew he would. "Ensign Attarus, a squad from your section."

"Yessir!" said a boy who wasn't having much luck growing a beard yet. "Squad Three, form behind me!"

"I didn't say-" Attaper started angrily.

Garric put a hand on Attaper's wrist. "It's all right, milord," he said, "your son can come with his men."

If Attarus was man enough to command a doomed rear guard, then he can have what he and all his fellows consider a place of honor now.

"You lied to me!" Estin said bitterly. "You've unmasked me before the whole court. What's my life worth now, do you suppose?"