Suddenly Inosolan fell silent and still, a beauty’s dark profile against the moon-drenched sky within the arches.
“I do talk a lot, don’t I, Aunt?”
“Come and sit down, dear.”
“Yes.” Inosolan came across and joined Kadolan on the bed, and put an arm around her. “Thank you for listening. I feel better.”
“I wish I could do more than listen. What happened after the warlock left?”
“Rasha threw a tantrum. I suppose she can see in the dark. She started tossing thunderbolts at things—the welcome mat and then the furniture. I ran. ”
“Wise!”
Inosolan gulped, then laughed shakily. “It was so childish it was almost funny! I was too scared to feel scared, somehow. I slipped on the stairs and hurt my ankle—Rasha healed it for me later—but I crawled over to the doors, and they wouldn’t open, and I just crouched there until the thunderstorm stopped. Until the noise stopped and the smoke cleared and Rasha came down.”
“How terrible!”
“Well . . .” Inosolan shivered. “The worst part was that I was afraid of the panther and the wolf-they were roaming around somewhere in the dark, I thought. And maybe demons? Something flapped overhead a few times . . . Or maybe it was worst when the torches blazed up in the sconces and she came slinking down the stairs. Your Kinvale lacquer was very thin, Aunt. She was back to being a brothel seductress again.”
What is a lady? Rasha had asked. Kadolan had tried to explain that being a lady. was a discipline, a way of life. A lady was considerate of others’ feelings. A lady was the same to all people, of high rank or low, at all times, under all conditions.
Those, the sorceress had said with a believing sneer, might be useful things to know. “Show me!” she had commanded. “For I must deal soon with the wardens, and these impish manners may impress them.”
So Kadolan had shown her, and she had learned amazingly fast.
“Yes, dear, I know. I knew she was too old to change, of course. I knew it was only affectation. But she was so very convincing I found myself believing in her. Forgive me!”
“Nothing to forgive, Aunt! You did a much better job with Rasha than I did with Azak.”
Kadolan had been wondering why she had heard no news of Azak.
“Imperial lady, sultana, dockside slut,” Inosolan said reflectively, “but I fear her most when she plays seductress. Inflame any man, Azak said—remember? It sickens me. It frightens me. She’s a man-eater, wriggling her body around like a worm on a hook. That’s how she was—young and gorgeous and shining through gauze, promising love, and yet burning inside with hatred and contempt . . . That’s the hook.”
Kadolan tried to find something to say, but couldn’t.
“Had I been a man . . . If there was a man there, I thought, he would be driven mad. Am I wrong?”
“I don’t think so, dear. It is an evil magic.” After a moment Kadolan added quietly, “Lust is not love, but I don’t think her Majesty has ever been taught the difference.”
Inosolan shivered again. “She cured my ankle and my bruises. Then I wanted to go, and she made me stay longer. She talked. She insists she was right and Olybino was lying. He really is in league with Lith’rian of the south against Zinixo. He really does need to find a peaceful solution to the Krasnegar problem. They’re all afraid of the dwarf. So she says.”
Kadolan squeezed her, but she was still rigid as a statue, trembling slightly even yet.
“I said, `So I must marry a goblin?’ She laughed and said she would bespell me so that I was crazy about male goblins! Ughh! Can you imagine?”
“It’s all over now, dear, and you should try to get some rest.”
“Gods! It must be halfway to morning.” Inos fell silent, and her aunt realized that she had not heard it all yet. There was still more to come.
Inosolan rose, started to pace, and then stepped to a window. For a moment her hair and shoulders were washed in silver by the high moon. Then she turned and spoke. “I won’t marry a goblin. But I will get back my kingdom!”
This time she did not swear any oaths about doing anything at all, Kadolan noticed. She had learned about costs.
“So I can’t just rely on Rasha!”
“That’s obvious, dear!”
“So what do we do now, Chancellor?”
This was where Kadolan felt so inadequate. “Why not discuss this latest development with the Big Man, Azak?”
“I didn’t tell you earlier . . .” Inosolan had dropped her voice, at last. “Kar told me today—yesterday. I’m not welcome on the hunts anymore, he said. I never did get to talk with the Big Man alone, Aunt. Anytime we stopped, to eat or anything, he was always surrounded by princes. So I never did get to talk with him.” She wandered back to the bed in a rustle of fabric. “You did better with Rasha than I did with him. He never gave me a chance to speak with him. And now he certainly never will!”
Kadolan held her breath. In a moment Inosolan continued.
“Rasha kept me there, talking. We were downstairs by then, in her bedchamber. She’d healed my twisted ankle. She just kept talking, saying nothing and repeating it over and over.”
“Yes, dear?”
“I could hardly bear to look at her. I would have minded less if she’d been naked, I think. What she was wearing was worse! Gems in . . . well, never mind. And then, suddenly, she put a finger to her lips . . . It’s a funny room, that. Only two windows. It looks like it ought to have another, over by the bed, doesn’t it? Well, what it has there is a hidden door. Behind the hangings.”
Kadolan guessed what was coming and knew that Inosolan had seen her twitch of shock.
“The hinges creaked. He pushed aside the tapestry and stepped in. And saw me there!”
“The Big Man?” Not that Kadohm doubted it.
“Azak, yes. She’d done it dehberately, of course. She must have summoned him and been waiting for him. She told him to come in and make himself comfortable—can you imagine the tone?—and then she told me I could go now. Oh, the look in her eyes!” Inosolan shivered.
Tremors of distaste ran down Kadolan’s arms. “Well, we did sort of learn when we arrived, didn’t we? I mean, she did drop broad hints—that she summoned him, and so on.”
“Oh, yes! But why?”
“Because she hates men, dear. Gods know, I suppose she’s had reason enough.”
“And he’s everything she hates in men—young and handsome and royal! Big and strong, and unbeatable at everything!”
The sudden enthusiasm in her niece’s voice made Kadolan uneasy. “And a murderer!”
“Is he?” Inosolan’s voice rose higher. “Think of this, Aunt Rasha the adept was living in the palace. Uninvited. Freeloading. Then she met the sultan, and he was another adept! He saw through her disguise. She hinted to me that they became friends, even lovers perhaps, two adepts together—and I suppose it must be hard for the sorcerous to be friends with mere mundanes. How sweet! But really she was in terrible danger, Aunt, because although they were both adepts, he had temporal power, also. He could have tortured her to learn her words of powerbut instead he died! Azak got the throne, but she got the words.”
Kadolan gasped. “You think it was Rasha who killed him?”
“Or helped. How do mundanes kill an adept? Maybe Azak made promises he hasn’t carried out? She can force him to do anything, but he’d promised . . . Oh, I don’t know!” Inosolan rose and began to pace again. “It doesn’t matter much does it? If I can’t rely on Rasha, then he’s my logical ally, because he hates her. My enemy’s enemy is my friend, but—”
“Who ever said that?”
“What? The thing about enemies? Oh, it’s just an expression I heard from . . . from an old friend. A friend I never really appreciated. But Azak wouldn’t talk to me before, and he certainly won’t now, because I’ve witnessed his shame. Because I know Rasha summons him to her bed so she can torment him and humiliate him as men humiliated her. He’ll never set eyes on me again!”
Kadolan took a deep breath. Inosolan was grasping at straws, but straws were all she had, and perhaps her incompetent, inadequate chancellor and chamberlain could help out a little; and even if it did no good in the end, it might give her something to hope for while her spirits were so horribly crushed.
“You want a private talk with the Big Man? That’s all?”
“It would be a start.”
“Well, we can certainly arrange that, dear,” Kadolan said cheerfully. “You go and try to get some sleep now. First thing in the morning, I’ll ask Mistress Zana to take him a message. I promise you, he’ll come running!”