Goblin and counterfeit faded and were gone. The casement’s third prophecy would be fulfilled. Rap turned to the fire and leaned an arm along the mantel. For a moment he seemed to slump, but whether it was from relief or despair, Inos could not tell. Then he straightened and looked around for her. He bowed.
“Good evening, your Majesty.” Keep it formal.
She strolled forward and tossed her heavy coat on a chair. The air bore a lingering stench of rancid bear grease. “Good evening, Court Sorcerer. And where have you been these last few days?”
“Running in the woods with a goblin.” Rap’s face was between her and the light on the mantelpiece, and unreadable.
“That helped him to the right choice?”
“Undoubtedly.”
“You wouldn’t have let me listen if you hadn’t been sure.”
“But it was only this afternoon that I was sure.”
“Most sorcerers would just adjust his mind to suit themselves.”
“Perhaps.” His voice was giving nothing away. “That might have upset his destiny, though.”
“Why did you let me see all that?”
He shrugged. “I won’t be staying long in Krasnegar, Inos. I didn’t want you . . . wondering.”
“Thank you,” she said, thinking of Krasnegar without him.
“You are most welcome. And what are your Majesty’s commands for this evening?”
She perched on the arm of the chair the goblin had occupied. “If I turn up with a court sorcerer and he blasts the jotnar to fritters, then the people will cheer loudly, hail him as Inisso II, and put him on the throne.”
“Which would be fine by you,” Rap agreed, an ironic smile crinkling his tattoos.
She nodded—very fine!
He wrinkled his nose. “But not by me.”
“So we have to let the citizens free themselves, which means giving them weapons.”
“And leadership. But then they will have bought their freedom, and will value it accordingly.” He smiled faintly. He would smile as long as she kept the talk on business. If she tried to tell him how empty life in Krasnegar was going to be without him, then he would just vanish, or tell her she didn’t know her own mind.
There was nothing else to discuss, then.
He was gazing at her quizzically, saying that it was time now. Her heart had speeded up as if it expected her to flap her arms and fly all the way to Krasnegar. But Rap would magic her there, and Rap would protect her—for a couple of days, he had told the goblin. After that she would be on her own.
Sink or swim. Win or lose. Live or die.
That was her choice, and now, irrevocably, she must decide: to be a butterfly in Kinvale or an ant in Krasnegar. Now! Speak!
She thought of the goblin. He also had been caught up between two worlds like corn in the mill, seduced by the easy life of the Impire and summoned home by duty. That might be the real reason Rap had summoned her to watch Little Chicken’s departure . . .
Who was she to start a war? By what right did she ask men to die so she could reign?
There was nothing left to say except either “Let’s go!” or else ”I’m too frightened.”
She had promised her father. Choose!
The door clicked. An elderly lady came wandering along the room—short and plump, immaculately dressed and begemmed, not a hair misplaced.
“There you are,” Kade said sternly. “Master Rap, I have a complaint.”
He bowed to her. “Your Highness, I am distressed to hear it.”
Kade nodded vaguely to Inos and then addressed Rap again. “I have been rather looking forward to having Kinvale the way it used to be, peaceful and settled. For the last ten or fifteen years, Angilki has been constantly tearing it apart and putting it back together again, but he won’t be doing that anymore.”
“Aunt!” Inos said testily. “Just what are you getting it?”
“My little sitting room. You know how fond I am of that room !”
“Yes, Aunt, I know how fond you are of that room. So what?”
“There is a door in the north wall, and I’m quite certain it was not there an hour ago.”
Inos turned to stare at the sorcerer. “Rap?”
His teeth showed in his shadowed face. “I thought you might appreciate a little company once in a while. Drop in for tea, maybe.”
Inos gaped wonderingly at him for a long moment. “Oh, Rap! You mean that this new door leads to Krasnegar?”
“Magic portal. Useful for tea parties, famines, invasions.”
“Rap! Oh, Rap!” Suddenly the prospect had changed. She would have Kade’s shoulder to weep on.
She would have an escape hatch. Now there was absolutely no reason not to go ahead. Her doubts of a moment ago now seemed completely absurd. Why had she hesitated?
“Rap!” she cried again, and she jumped up from the side of the chair and tried to throw her arms around him.
She ran into invisible molasses that brought her to a stop about a handsbreadth away from him. She saw something close to panic in his eyes, and although their faces were so near, he shouted at her.
“Idiot! How often must I tell you? We can’t!”
“Rap!”
“Never! Not even once. Not even to say good-bye.”
Bold Lover:
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal
— Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn
ELEVEN
Alteration find
1
Rap’s taste in interior decorating was no match for Angilki’s. Kade’s private parlor room was a small room, but it had been beautifully proportioned. The walls were papered in pink roses, and the original woodwork was smooth and shiny white. The new door was an odd-sized excrescence in one corner—mahogany red, thickly embellished with carvings, spangled in eye-twisting runes of gold and copper. It just did not go.
“I could move it to the back of a closet somewhere,” Rap mumbled, scratching his head and apparently recognizing for the first time the monstrosity he had created.
“I love it!” Kade insisted. “Now that I know what it does, I just love it! I did try the handle,” she confessed guiltily, “but it seems to be bolted on the other side.”
“It’s only a dummy, actually,” Rap said. “Unless you also say the magic word, which is `Holindarn.’ Are you ready, your Majesty?”
There was no need to worry about baggage now. Inos swallowed a summerful of butterflies and said, “One more minute, Court Sorcerer.” She began buttoning her coat.
“I’ll be with you,” he said quietly. “But you don’t want to show up with a horsethief, so nobody’s going to notice me. I’ll be immemorable. Like this.”
Glancing up from a particularly awkward button, Inos found herself looking at a man-at-arms. Ear flaps dangled from a conical iron helmet, framing a face that was typically imp—swarthy, poxy, and pudgy. Nothing much else was visible except furs and a breastplate. He wore a short sword and padded leggings. And boots. There was nothing especial to notice, except that he was a man-at-arms dressed for winter. She remembered how once before she had seen Rap clad somewhat like that and had failed to recognize him even with his own face on.
Then he was himself again. Smiling warily, he stepped by her and hauled a chintz-covered chair out of the way. “Go ahead, try it!”
Inos turned to Kade for a farewell hug and kiss. “If I’m not fighting any wars tomorrow afternoon, I’ll stop by for tea and tell you all about it,” she promised, surprised how husky her voice sounded.
“That will be lovely, dear. If you can.” For a moment Kade clung to Inos, and her cornflower-blue eyes were unusually misty. “Inos . . .” She bit her lip. “I’m not going to start being maudlin at my age, but . . . I do want you to know that your father would be very proud of you now!”
Gulp! “Well, let’s wait and see how he would feel tomorrow, shall we?”
“Your courage, dear, I mean. What you try is always lots more important than what you achieve.”
“Goodness, Aunt! I have never heard you moralize like this before.”
“That’s because you always refused to listen, dear. But I am serious! Your father would have approved of you. Your sense of duty, and your courage.”
If this farewell was protracted any further, it was going to become a rather obvious cowardice. “And he certainly would not disapprove of his sister, or what she has done for me and for Krasnegar. Now I really must dash off, or I shall be late for the massacre.”
With that, Inos broke free and turned quickly to try the magic portal. “Holindarn!” she proclaimed. The door shivered but did not budge.
“Here, put some muscle into it!” Rap leaned an arm over her to push. He was closer than he’d been since she tried to tell him her word of power, weeks ago. Then she’d kissed his cheek. If she turned her head quickly, could she manage that again? The door began to move, and wind shrieked. Torrents of icy air whirled into Kade’s sitting room. Drapes leaped, papers flew. Coals tumbled and smoke vomited from the fireplace. Kade squealed in alarm.