smugly. ‘That “beloved” that just escaped you had some strong
overtones of surrender to it. Why don’t we adjourn to some more
suitable place and discuss that at greater length?’
You can’t get much more obvious than that, I suppose.
He kissed me gently at that point, and I’ll confess that I very nearly
swooned right there in his arms. Then, with a look of towering
nobility, he tenderly disengaged my arms from about his neck. ‘The
current crisis hath, it seemeth to me, excited us both beyond that
which is seemly and proper, dearest Polgara,’ he said with a certain
regret. ‘Let us not fall prey to heightened emotions engendered by
the prospect of war. I will to horse now to remove myself from this
dangerous proximity unto thee. I must to Seline to prepare our
defense, and the cool night air might serve to moderate the unseemly
heat which doth inflame my blood. Farewell, beloved. Let us address
this matter further anon.’
And then he turned and left the room.
‘Ontrose!’ I screamed after him. ‘You come back here!’
And would you believe that he ignored me?
The room in which I stood was my own library, and many of the
things there were precious to me. I left the room rather quickly and
marched down the hall to the kitchen, where I began hurling things
at the wall.
Malon Killaneson, my seneschal, came running. ‘Yer Grace!’ he
exclaimed, ‘Whatever are y’ doin’?’
‘I’m breaking dishes, Malon!’ I shouted back at him. ‘You’d better
get out of here, because I’m just about ready to start on people!
He fled.
The following morning, after a sleepless night,
I went falcon again.
I strongly resisted my impulse to chase Ontrose down and drag him
off his horse. I flew south instead. I definitely needed some exercise
about then, and Duke Andrion really should be kept advised,
I supposed.
I found Andrion on the city walls, and he was dressed in full
armor. I flared my wing’S, swooped over to a concealed spot behind
a jutting buttress, and resumed my own form. Unless it’s absolutely
necessary, I try not to do that in the presence of others. I hadn’t
examined Andrion recently, so I wasn’t entirely sure that his heart
was still sound. Then I came out from behind the buttress. ‘Good
morning, Andrion,’ I greeted him.
He looked startled. ‘I had thought that it had been thine intention
to go north, Polgara. What hath delayed thee?’
,I’ve already been north, Andrion,’ I told him. ‘General Halbren’s
on the march, and Count Ontrose is going on ahead to Seline.
Everything’s moving according to schedule. When Carteon reaches Seline,
we’ll be ready for him. What are you doing in that silly armor?’
‘it seemeth to me that thou art out of sorts this morning, Polgara.’
‘Probably something I ate. What are you doing?’
,Posing, Pol, just posing. With both Lathan and Ontrose elsewhere
occupied, the command of the local garrison hath winnowed down
to me. I have garbed myself in armor, and I do posture and
gesticulate here atop the battlements to reassure the citizens of Vo Wacune
that they have little to fear with so mighty a warrior standing ‘twixt
them and the foul Asturians.’
‘And it’s fun, too, isn’t it?’
‘Well -‘ He said it a bit deprecatingly, and we both laughed.
‘Let us return to the palace, Pol,’ he suggested. ‘Surely I have
displayed myself enough for one morning, and I do not much care
for the fragrance emanating from this suit of steel.’
‘We might do that,’ I agreed, ‘if you promise to walk on the
downwind side.’
After we’d returned to the palace and Andrion had shed his steel,
we went to his study to discuss the situation.
‘I know this may sound like a personal obsession rearing its head
again, Andrion,’ I said, ‘but I do rather expect that if we were to
start turning over rocks in Asturia, we’d eventually find a Grolim
lurking under one of them. The Asturian mind is the perfect target
for Grolim chicanery. I’ve never yet encountered one of these
Asturian schemes that didn’t have a Grolim source. Ctuchik’s been
obsessed with the idea of starting a general war among the kingdoms
of the west since the Murgos crossed the land-bridge some nine
hundred years ago. He desperately wants to build a fire, and he
always goes to Asturia to find kindling.’
. ‘The War of the Gods ended two thousand years ago, Pol,’
AndrIon disagreed.
‘NO, dear one
, it didn’t. It’s still going on, and at the moment,
we’re all engaged in it. I think that after the Battle of Seline’s finished,
I’ll drift on over into Asturia and start uprooting trees until I find
Garteon’s tame Grolim. Then I’ll take him – piece by piece – on
down to Rak Cthol and drop him on Ctuchik’s head.’ It came out
from between clenched teeth.
‘Thou art truly out of sorts today, Polgara,’ he observed. ‘Didst
thou and thy champion perchance have a falling-out?’
‘I wouldn’t exactly call it that, Andrion,’ I replied. ‘It was more
in the nature of a disagreement.’
‘On a military matter?’
‘No. It was more important than that. Ontrose will come around
to my way of thinking, however. I promise you that.’
‘It doth pain me to see thou and thy champion at odds,’ he said.
‘Might I offer my services as conciliator?’
The notion of Duke Andrion’s intervention in this situation struck
me as enormously funny, for some reason, and I burst out laughing.
‘No, dear Andrion,’ I said. ‘This is one of those things Ontrose and
I are going to have to work out for ourselves. Thanks for the offer,
though.’
*CHAPTER22
I spent the rest of the day at my town house in Vo Wacune. My
champion’s remark about cooling one’s blood made a lot of sense
just then. We did have this incidental little war to get out of the way
before we got down to serious business.
The temperature of my blood didn’t noticeably go down, however,
and by the next morning, I was about to start climbing the walls. I
gave up at that point and flew on north to check the positions of
our two armies.
Lathan’s Wacite army was crossing the River Camaar, and he and
I spoke briefly on the north bank while we watched small boats and
rafts ferrying his troops across. ‘All doth proceed as we have
planned, your Grace,’ he assured me in that strangely empty voice
I’d noticed when he’d first told Andrion and me of the Asturian
plan.
‘What’s the matter, Lathan?’ I asked him very directly. ‘You seem
Somehow sad.’
He sighed. ‘It is of no moment, your Grace,’ he said. ‘All will be
made right again soon. The end of my discontent is now clearly in
sight. I will be most glad when it is behind me.’
,I certainly hope so, dear Lathan,’ I told him. ‘You’re as gloomy
as a rainy day. Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’d better go see where
General Halbren is.’
General Halbren had reached the northern end of Lake Sulturn
by ‘Olv. He advised me that he’d received word that an incoming
Tolnedran merchantman had seen the Asturian fleet about eight
miles Off-shore near Camaar about three days ago, and that was a
sure indication that everything was proceeding according to
schedule. I rode along beside my solid general for the rest of that day,
putting off my next meeting with Ontrose. I still wasn’t entirely
positive that I wouldn’t do something wildly inappropriate the
moment I laid eyes on him. just the thought of my beautiful
champion made my heart start to flutter.
It could very well have been that fluttering that decided my course
of action the next morning. Clearly, I wasn’t ready to meet Ontrose
just yet, so I decided to fly out over the Great Western Sea to pinpoint
the location of the Asturian fleet. If there’d been a favoring wind
from the south, we might have to re-think our schedule.
I crossed the coastline at about the site of the present-day city of
Sendar and then spiraled upward until I’d reached a height of
several thousand feet. From up there, I could see for ten leagues in any
direction. If General Halbren’s information had been correct, the
enemy fleet should be somewhere near where I’d flown out over
open water. They weren’t anywhere in sight, though, and that made
me very nervous. Perhaps I’d underestimated their speed, so I veered
off and flew north along the coast, watching the seaward side. Still
nothing. By mid-afternoon I’d rounded the tip of that out-thrust
peninsula, and I knew that it was impossible for them to have come
this far in six days, but Carteon probably did have access to a Grolim
and all that implies. I grimly pressed on, and just as evening was
turning the sky above me a deep purple, I reached the mouth of