of them. I even went so far as to snoop around in several outlaw
encampments back in the forest. Still no Garteon. Quite clearly, the
Duke of Asturia had gone down a hole somewhere. Surely there
was someone in Asturia who knew where he was, but whoever that
someone was, he wasn’t talking about it. Since Arends are
constitutionally incapable of keeping a secret for more than a few hours
I began to catch a strong odor of Grolim in the whole business.
I wasn’t in a very good humor when I finally threw up my hands
in defeat and flew back to Vo Wacune to report my failure to my
friends in the palace. After some discussion, I glumly agreed that
‘nobilization for war was the only course of action open to us at
this point. ‘I’ll keep trying. though.
gentlemen, I assured the little
gathering. ‘Sooner or later, Carteon’s going to have to come out of
hiding. He’s made me a bit peevish, and I’d like to talk with him
about that – at length.’
Then Ontrose escorted me back to my town house, and we had
a quiet supper. About the only good thing about my failure in Vo
Astur was the fact that it persuaded my handsome champion that
I was not omnipotent.
After supper, we adjourned to my rose-garden. I needed the peace
of that lovely spot to calm my nerves.
‘I do sense thy discontent, my Lady,’ Ontrose sympathized.
‘It’s a bit more than discontent, dear friend,’ I said wryly.
‘Evidently, I’ve had too many
years of easy successes, and failure upsets
my opinion of myself.’
He smiled faintly, but then he sighed. ‘On the morrow I fear me
that, with thy permission, I must go north into thy domain. If
Wacune doth mobilize, then Erat must needs follow. Given two
armies, I have a few fears as to the outcome of the current
unpleasantness.’
warrant for you to take to Malon
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them to defend themselves.’
‘Thou art ever the mother, dear Lady.’
I shrugged. ‘It seems that way,’ I agreed. ‘It must have something
to do with my own mother’s side of the family – but we don’t really
need to go into that.’
Then I saw something familiar in the night sky. ‘You’re late,’ I
said.
‘I?’ Ontrose said in puzzlement.
‘No, Ontrose, not you. I was talking to my old friend up there.’
I pointed out the smeary light of the comet pasted against the stars
on the velvet throat of night. ‘He usually appears in the late winter,
but it’s almost summer now.’
‘Thou hast seen this marvel before?’ he asked.
‘Many times, Ontrose, many times.’ I made a quick mental
comPUtation. ‘Thirteen times actually. I was fourteen the first time I saw
him. He comes by for a visit every seventy-one years.’
Ontrose also made some calculations, and his eyes went very
wide.
‘Don’t let it upset you, dear Ontrose,’ I told him. ‘People in mY
family tend to live for a long time, that’s all. It’s just a trait – like
dark hair or a long nose.’
,It seemeth to me that the casual dismissal of nine centuries of
life as a mere family peculiarity doth stretch the boundaries of the
meaning of that term, Lady Polgara.’
‘The secret to longevity lies in keeping busy, Ontrose – and
avoiding fights with people who’re bigger than you are, of course.’ I
thought back. ‘I think my fourteenth summer came in one of those
years I spent in my Tree,’ I reminisced. ‘My sister and I were having
an argument about my father, and I was feeling sulky. I lived in
my Tree for a couple of years to punish her.’ I laughed. ‘Children
can be so ridiculous at times.’
,Thou hast a sister? I had not heard of that.’
‘She died – many, many years ago. Her name was Beldaran, and
we were twins. She was much prettier than I am.’
‘Say not so, my dear Lady,’ he protested. ‘Thou art the paramount
beauty in all this world, and I shall prove the fact upon the body
of any foolish enough to gainsay my words.’
‘Flatterer,’ I said, touching his cheek fondly.
‘To speak the truth is not flattery, my Lady.’
‘To exaggerate is, though. I certainly wasn’t all that pretty the first
time my friend up there paid me a visit. My sister was so beautiful
that I just gave up and let myself go to seed, so to speak. I was
awkward and gangly and not really very clean – unless a passing
rain-storm had just washed off most of the dirt. After my sister’s
betrothal, I cleaned myself up. We were sixteen then, so after I
scrubbed off the dirt and combed my hair, I was moderately
presentable. My sister was betrothed to Riva Iron-grip, King of the Isle
of the Winds, and after we sailed to his realm, I entertained myself
by breaking hearts for a while.’
‘I must admit that I do not follow thee, dear Lady,’ he
confessed.
‘Oh, dear,’ I laughed. ‘You are an innocent, aren’t you, Ontrose?
That’s what young girls do, didn’t you know that? We wear our
prettiest dresses and ribbons, put on our most winsome expressions,
and then go forth to do war. Our enemies are all the other pretty
girls in the vicinity, and our battleground is the collective hearts of
all the young men within reach.’ I gave him an arch look. ‘Be very
careful around me, dear boy,’ I warned him. ‘I could break your
heart with a single flutter of my eyelashes.’
‘Why wouldst thou wish to shatter that which is already wholly
tine, dear Lady?’ he asked, and I sensed a certain subterfuge in
his carefully phrased question. Ontrose was obviously not quite as
innocent as he seemed to be. This was moving along even better
than I’d hoped. Ontrose obviously no longer looked at me as an
institution. We were definitely making progress now.
‘Be warned, my champion,’ I bantered. ‘Methinks I shall unlimber
mine entire arsenal upon thine unprotected heart. Defend thyself as
best thou canst.’
I think my lapse into formality startled him just a bit. ‘Thou
wouldst take so unfair an advantage of me, Lady Polgara?’he chided
lightly. ‘Fie! For shame! Must I now defend thy realm ‘gainst the
Asturians and mine own heart ‘gainst thine unspeakable charm
simultaneous? I have no fears concerning the Asturians. Mine heart’s
fortress, however, doth already crumble before thine onslaughts,
and I do fear me that I must inevitably capitulate and submit to this
gentle enslavement which thou dost propose.’
I laid my hand on his arm. ‘Well put, my Lord,’ I complimented
him. ‘Very well put indeed. We shall talk about this more anon.’
And then he took my hand and gently kissed -it.
It was a bit flowery, but it was a start. The ladies who read this will
understand, of course, but I don’t think the men will. That’s all
right, though – as long as somebody understands.
The peace I’d imposed on Arendia had been based on the brutal
fact that as soon as one of the duchies began to show signs of
restiveness, the other three would lock into an alliance to counter
its waywardness. The core of the problem this time was the senility
of Duke Moratham of Mimbre. By now, he’d been placed in the care
of a nurse who babied him like the child he’d become. The
governance of the duchy was in the hands of a cluster of nobles who were
far more interested in out-maneuvering each other than they were
in the good of Arendia as a whole. I made several attempts to explain
the realities of Arendish politics and the benefits to all of the ongoing
peace to them, but they were too short-sighted and too caught UP
in their own chicanery to understand. I think that if their capital
had been located in central Mimbre, they might have come around,
but, since Vo Mimbre stands on the extreme southern border of
Arendia, events in the three northern duchies might as well have
been happening on the far side of the moon. Despite my best efforts,
Mimbre distanced itself from the rest of us and took up a stance of
strict neutrality.
I had some suspicions about the source of this Mimbrate policy.
Over the centuries, many in the west have viewed
my family’s conviction that the Angaraks were behind ost of the
disruptions on our side of the Eastern Escarpment as an obsession.
Perhaps we are a bit too quick to lay blame at Angarak doors, but
when we’re talking about Arendia, our suspicions are fully justified.
Arendia has always been the key to the Angarak design to disrupt
the west. Ctuchik was absolutely convinced that if he set fire to
Arendia, the entire west would soon go up in flames. Unfortunately,
Arendia’s always been a tinder-box that’ll take fire if you so much