It might be quiet in sorcerous terms, but in Gath’s world the cheering was waxing louder and a small army of men had started running along the shore. It was heading for the place where Blood Wave would beach, gathering mass like a snowball as it went.
Mention of graves made Gath feel even colder. Perhaps the damage was done, and every sorcerer already ashore had been bent to the will of the Almighty. Best not to worry about that possibility! “Is the Commonplace shielded?”
Now Thewsome turned to look at him with Twist’s pale eyes. There was no hint of a smile in them, though. “It is.”
“So . . .” No, discard that idea . . . “That’s good, isn’t it? If war breaks out in there, then the Covin itself can’t interfere!”
“Shielding is only as strong as the sorcerer who made it,” Thewsome remarked softly, “but likely you are being right.”
“If the odds are on the Covin’s side already, then the case is hopeless,” Gath continued. To think he had hated schooling back in Krasnegar! Here the penalties for mistakes did not bear thinking about. ”We’ll lose. So we must just hope the odds are on our side, and we’ll win the battle in the Commonplace.”
“What battle?”Thewsome shrugged the obscene pictures on his shoulders and went back to watching the shore. Somehow he had implied disappointment, that Gath was overlooking something.
“But when we all come out again . . . ?”
The giant said nothing, merely scratching a few more tattoos. That was not the problem, then, or not the worst part of it.
“If all the sorcerers come in disguise,” Gath suggested wildly, ”then you can’t tell which ones have loyalty spells on them! And we agreed that you probably can’t rely on knowing them anyway?”
Thewsome nodded, waving a vulgar finger at some man ashore. What had he seen that Gath had not? The best way to get answers was to ask questions, Dad had always said.
“Then how do you tell the good guys from the bad guys? How do you tell the sheep from the wolves?”
“Ah! Well, my lad, one way is that sheep mill around in herds and wolves run in packs.”
Was there a difference between a herd and a pack? Cold fingers closed around Gath’s heart. Oh, God of Horrors! “’Twist! What happens at the Moot Stow if the thanes vote for war?”
Twist-Thewsome looked down at him with approval, baring yellow teeth in flaxen beard: “Then they choose a leader. If needs be, the candidates fight it out at the Place of Ravens. But once a leader is chosen, then all the other thanes do homage to him.”
“Is it possible for a sorcerer to lie to another sorcerer?”
“Not usually.”
Gath shivered. His teeth chattered briefly. Then he brought them under control. “Homage can be done to a deputy, can’t it? An agent?”
The giant nodded.
“Was that why you let me come?”
“Whatever do you mean, Atheling? You came because you wanted to.” Thewsome uttered a gruesome jotunn laugh. Then he gripped Gath’s arm, and his fingers went all the way around. He squeezed painfully. “Will you do it? Are you man enough?”
This was Dad’s war. Here was Gath’s part in Dad’s war. He had chosen it himself, even if he hadn’t known he was doing so. This was what his craziness at Urgaxox had brought him to! He had no one to blame but himself. He straightened up and forced out the words, his knuckles white on the gunwale. “No, I’m not man enough, but yes, I’ll do it, if it will help.”
“It is the only way I can think of, Atheling.”
“Then of course I’ll do it”
“It is dangerous!”
“I said I’d do it!” Gath shouted angrily.
That was how to tell the sheep from the wolves—set a trap. With him as the bait.
3
Inos came along the Way in the evening sunshine. A whiff of sea tang and a muted rumble of surf told her she was approaching the Rap Place. As she emerged from the trees she was greatly relieved to see Rap himself stretched out on one of the ugly purple lounges. He sprang up to greet her and they hugged.
Funny,” she murmured into his neck. “I think I missed this more than anything just being held.”
He grunted. “Well, it’s a start. Sit down and let me make you a drink.”
She sank down wearily, wondering if she was too old for all this wild adventuring or just unaccustomed to the Thumian climate. “Something stunning.”
“Elvish brandy?” He gave her a crystal beaker the size of a small bucket. She needed both hands to hold it.
“You were always generous,” she muttered. “I said stun, not kill.” It was cool and delicious and not elvish brandy.
Rap perched on the edge of the chair beside her and smiled happily.
“Kadie?” she said.
He glanced at the cottage. “Stretched out cold on our bed. I don’t think she slept all night.”
“Not much, anyway.” Inos took another draft and eyed him over the rim. “I wish I understood why you can’t heal her!” He shrugged. ”I can heal bodies. Souls belong to the Gods.”
“You cured me!”
He turned his face away as if to study the trees. “Not really,” he muttered.
“Rap!”
“Well . . . I did hurry your own healing along a little. You’re a strong, mature woman. You knew that what Azak wanted was to hurt and humiliate you, so you fought back against that. To recover was to defeat him, right? I just helped. Kadie’s problem is much worse, much deeper. What would you have me do—take away her memories? People are made of their memories, darling. Personalities are. I mean, I daren’t meddle in that. I might turn her into a mushroom.”
He ran his hands through his hair. “Besides, she’s right, to be worried about her friend, isn’t she?”
Inos made a noncommittal noise. Friendship was one thing, obsession another. She laid the drink on the table beside her so she was free to squeeze Rap’s arm. ”I’m sure you’re doing all you can, love.”
“How’s the impress?”
“Better. She’s a strong woman.” For a twenty-year-old who had been through several consecutive hells, the girl was a marvel.
Rap nodded, staring at nothing.
Inos said, “Prin and Baze are sweet.”
“Yes.”
“Rap? Is she pregnant?” He nodded again.
Inos took another drink and thought yet again about Shandie. Having now met Eshiala, she could understand his infatuation. The impress’ beauty was every bit as incredible as he had claimed, but he had never been a sensitive or understanding husband. How would he react to her now that she carried another man’s child?
“I suppose that’s a fairly small problem really, isn’t it?” she said. “With the world at stake, what’s one more little bastard? Even an Imperial bastard. Minor problem.”
So was Kadie. Tomorrow was Longday. None of them mattered compared to that, not Eshiala or Kadie or Rap or Inos. “How’s your day been?”
Rap shrugged. “Frustrating. The Way won’t always do what I want it to. I can’t reach any of the archons’ Places I know of. I can’t find any trace of the Chapel, and I think Kadie tried for the Thaile Place a hundred times. Mostly I’ve been following her around in circles, keeping an eye on her.”
“Any news of the Covin?”
He sighed. “The djinn army’s back where it was four days ago. If it advances tomorrow, it’ll enter Thume before midday.”
“How’s Azak?”
“Don’t know.”
“His sorcerers may have cured him?”
“If they weren’t frightened of the Covin, they might. Or Zinixo may have done so. Or he may have died. I have no idea.”
“We should have killed. the bastard,” Inos muttered, “when we had the chance. Him and his whole murdering horde.” She saw Rap wince. Why? What did he know about Azak that he wasn’t saying? “Dragons?”
He brightened. “That’s interesting! Apparently they’re restless, but not going anywhere. They rise, circle, then return to their nests.”
“So why is that interesting?”
“Because either something is troubling them, or the dwarf suspects something.”
“He always suspects something! Such as?”
“I think,” Rap said, “that some of the anthropophagi must be still at large. Zinixo’s frightened to raise the dragons in case he triggers a trap or something. Or else the worms themselves sense the trap—they’re not entirely mundane, remember.” He ran fingers through his hair again. ”All right! I’m clutching at straws. It just seems indecisive, see?”
Zinixo was notoriously indecisive, but let the man dream. And how had he learned all this if he hadn’t been able to reach the archons?
“What else did the new Keeper tell you?”
Rap shot her an admiring glance. “She was here. Not twenty minutes ago. Briefly.”
“How is she?”
“Can’t tell with demigods.”
“Did Kadie know?”
“Kadie was asleep.”