Given that lead and the old man’s benevolent mood, Inos sensed a chance to satisfy her longstanding curiosity about magic. Was he seeking to distract her, though? “We are ignorant in such matters, Greatness. Will you explain the distinction?”
He chuckled as if he had expected the question. “A mage, knowing but three words, can perform only magic, not full sorcery.”
“What is the difference?”
“Sorcery is permanent, magic only temporary. It varies—people are more easily influenced than inanimate objects. Healing the lionslayer and your aunt was relatively simple. I put a sleep spell on you every evening. That happens to be one of the easier magics, and it lasted until morning without reinforcement. But the euphoria spell I used on you by day tended to weaken unless I remembered to restore it at frequent intervals.” He sipped his wine thoughtfully. ”A sorcerer would have called you back out of the hills easily. And of course, I had to delay my pursuit until I had sorted out the tangle you had created. I tell you true, Tall Cranes was in considerable uproar.”
Inos gulped.
Kade glanced at her warningly. “You are gracious not to bear us ill will, Greatness,” she murmured.
“I was a trifle irked, that first morning,” the mage said, ”but at my age, one sees the humor in such situations. It was well done. ”
Relieved, Inos began to frame more questions in her mind, but then Azak came stalking in from the dark.
The front of his kibr was black with dried blood, and the expression on his face was blacker yet. About to leap up and welcome him, Inos abruptly changed her mind.
Oh, poor Azak! To be defeated by sorcery was a permissible defeat for a mundane—hard as that admission would be for himbut to be bushwacked by a band of ragtag youths was abysmal incompetence.
Perhaps never in his life before had he known real humiliation. His reputation for infallibility was shattered. He had failed his chosen. He had been rescued from his own folly by hateful magic, and that might be hurting worst of all. His mood was obviously murderous as he folded his anus and glared across the fire at the sheik.
Never in Arakkaran had Inos thought she could ever feel sorry for Azak ak’Azakar, but she felt sorry for him now. And to offer sympathy would be to rub salt in the wound with a stonemason’s brush.
“Welcome, Lionslayer,” Elkarath said mildly. A very large dish of food appeared on the rug at Azak’s feet.
The big man ignored it. “I am no lionslayer!”
The old man frowned warningly. “Be seated, ak’Azakar.”
Azak ground his teeth. “You are a votary of that unspeakable slut, Rasha!”
Inos felt her heart sink lower still. Azak did not know how to be humble, how to handle humiliation. He was not familiar with failure as ordinary mortals were—how he must be suffering! She kept her eyes on her dish, but the food had turned to sawdust in her mouth. Poor Azak!
“I offer you hospitality,” Elkarath said quietly.
“I refuse it.”
Azak’s legs seemed to collapse beneath him, and he tumbled to the ground. Inos choked back a protest, and Kade gestured warningly to her. This was not fair! He struggled to sit up, supporting himself with his arms, and livid with fury.
“Yes,” the sheik remarked, to no one in particular,”I do serve her Majesty. Why she did not bind you all to her service likewise, I do not know.” He glanced a brief smile in the direction of Inos. “I suspect that in your case it may be something to do with the warlocks and your destiny as queen of Krasnegar—great sorcerers may be able to tell what spells have been cast on a person in the past. I don’t know that, but such may be the case. Anyway, my instructions were to use deceit as long as possible. It was an amusing sport.”
He chuckled, and a sound of grinding teeth came from Azak’s direction.
But he had mentioned Inos’s homeland. “Then Krasnegar is still . . . The matter has not been settled?”
“I have had no recent news,” Elkarath said calmly, popping a wad of rice into his mouth.
“And the sultana truly intends to put me on the throne of my fathers?”
He shrugged. “So she says. I do not question her purposes, you understand.”
Kade was beaming.
“She also intends to marry me off to a goblin?” Inos demanded.
Elkarath shot her a brief, elusive glance from under his shaggy white brows. ”And if she does? To defy a sorceress is incredible folly, young lady. You told me tonight that you dislike having your emotions dictated to you. Queen Rasha may now decide to make you want to marry a goblin.”
Inos flinched and felt suddenly ill. She rubbed her fingers on the grass, lacking the stomach even to lick them clean in approved Zarkian style. Fall in love with a goblin? She looked across at Azak’s insensately furious face. His hatred of sorcery suddenly seemed more understandable. It was indeed a great evil.
The prospect appalled her. The sorceress could make her fall in love with anyone—Azak, or some eligible imp, or even a detestable goblin. And she would accept her fate with joy! Horror!
“So her Majesty was aware of our intention to leave Arakkaran?” Kade inquired politely.
“She instigated it, I am sure.”
“To conceal my niece from the wardens?”
“Correct. Warlocks are accustomed to getting their own way. Inosolan is a valuable property, as I understand the politics. They would certainly have penetrated the palace quickly.”
Kade’s extractions of information were usually subtle, but now she was clearly exploiting the old man’s willingness to talk. “The wraith my niece saw, that first night,” she queried. “That was your doing?”
The old man frowned. “No. That was nothing of mine.”
“Then it was Rasha’s?” Inos demanded.
He shook his head, and fires flashed from the rubies. “I think not. She was expecting to be under surveillance. She told me she would not even observe our departure, lest she reveal our whereabouts.”
“But. . .”Inos shivered. “You mean it really was a wraith?” Rap? Oh, poor Rap!
Elkarath shrugged his bulky shoulders. “Or else it was a sending from someone else. I did not awake in time to observe whether there was sorcery at work.”
“Sending?” Inos repeated. “What sort of sending?”
“From another sorcerer. A warlock, perchance.”
Inos’s heart thumped hard with shock. “You can’t mean that Rap may still be alive?”
The old man shrugged again. “Who knows? I expected trouble . . . but nothing further has transpired. Strange! I cannot explain that either, ma’am.”
Rap alive? For some reason that information was stunning. Inos took a long draft of wine while she mulled over the news. She had never wanted to believe that Rap had been so wicked that he would have remained after death as an evil wraith. How could he ever have escaped the imps? How could he have arranged a sending? How . . .
No. Sadly she decided that it was impossible. Rap could never have survived the legionaries’ wrath.
Kade was still interrogating the old man. “And what happens when we reach Ullacam?”
He chewed and swallowed. “There we shall await further instructions. It is a pleasant city.”
Inos glanced miserably at Azak, whose scowl could not have been deeper. All things include both the Evil and the Good. Her joy at being rescued from the pixies had blinded her to the evil in that deliverance. Would even four pixies have been worse than one goblin, a lifetime with a goblin?
Once Ullacarn had been the first stop on the way to appeal to the wardens. Now it might be the first stop on the way to permanent slavery. She would be turned over to the warlock of the east, while Rasha reclaimed her favorite plaything, Azak.
Kade glanced uneasily at the encircling night. “But first we must reach Ullacarn. You say we shall be gone by dawn . . . Must we return through that dreadful pass in the dark?”
Elkarath shook his head in a vigorous torrent of red fire. “No! That pass would not be wise at any time, I fear.”
“I am glad to hear it!” Kade said sharply. “Nothing has ever so depressed me as the sight of all those . . . statues.”
“Why unwise?” Inos asked.
He sipped his wine, studying the fire over the lip of the goblet. “I am only a mage, ma’am. I cannot normally detect the occult at work. That ability is beyond my powers except in a few special cases, such as knowing when my farsight is blocked. I assume that others of my standing are similarly limited. But I think I felt something when I came through that pass. Even if I was mistaken, it may well be that some of the spell still lingers.”