“I am not your late lord, my dear lady.” If she threatened him with that gesture, he did not show it. “His line was already cursed, remember, thus making him easily malleable to anything pertaining to them. I have the same counter-measures bred in me that you have. I cannot be so easily shaped and ordered. Though even your lord escaped you in the end, did he not? He named his body-heir in spite of your spells and potions – “
Her face changed in a subtle way that made me suddenly queasy, as if something had sickened my inner spirit. There was evil in this room. I could smell it; see it sweep in to fill that vessel waiting to hold it – that form of woman I refused to believe had ever given me life.
“What did you deal with, my dear lady, in that shrine when you bore my so-detested cousin, I wonder?” Rogear continued, still smiling, though Hlymer drew away along the bench as if he expected his mother to loose some blast in which he did not want to be caught. “What bargain did you make – or was it made before my cousin’s birth? Did you cast a spell to bring Ulmsdale’s lord to your bed as your husband? For you have had long dealings with them, and not with those on the White Path either. No, do not try that on me. Do you think I ever come here unprotected?”
Her pointing finger had been drawing swift lines. Just as Riwal, when he bade me farewell, had gestured in the air, and as I had seen thereafter a fault gleam of light marking the symbol he had traced in blessing, so did her finger leave behind a marking, or pattern. The marking was smoky-dark. Still it could be seen in the subdued light of the chamber, as if its darkness had the evil, black quality.
Rogear’s hand was up before his face. He held it palm-out, and all those hand lines that we bear from birth and that are said by the Wisewomen to foretell our futures stood out on his flesh as if they had been traced in red. Behind that hand he still smiled faintly.
I heard a short, bitten-off cry from the Lady Tephana, and her hand dropped back into her lap. On her thumb the ring looked dull, as if its honest fire had been eaten out by what she had done moments earlier. I longed to free it from her flesh.
“Yes,” Rogear continued, “you are not the only one, my dear lady, to go seeking strong allies in hidden places. It is born into us to have a taste for such matters. Now, having made sure that we are equally matched, let us return to the matter at hand. Your amiable son – “ He paused and nodded slightly at Hlymer, though Hlymer looked anything but amiable. He sat hunched-over, darting glances first at his mother and then at Rogear, as if he feared one and had begun to hate the other.
“Since your amiable son has rid us of the other barrier standing in the way of possession of Ulmsdale, we must indeed make our plans. But I do not altogether agree that we should deal with the invaders.”
“And why not?” she demanded. “Do you fear them? You, who have that” – she nodded to bis hand – “to stand to your defense?”
“No, I do not fear them personally. But neither do I intend to give tamely into their hands any advantage. I believe, my dear lady, that you can indeed summon thunder from the hills to counteract any treachery that they might plan. But that which can be so summoned will not take note of selective destruction, and I do not propose to lose Ulmsdale in defending it”
“You will lose it anyway then.” For the first time Lisana broke silence. “Also, dear Rogear” – there was little liking in her voice as she named him so – “we are not yet hand-fasted. Are you not a little beforehand in naming yourself lord here?”
She spoke coolly, and regarded him straight-eyed, measuringly, as if they were not betrothed but, rather, opponents at a gamingboard.
‘True spoken, my sweeting,” he agreed amiably. Had I been Lisana I would not have found that amiability pleasing, though. “Do you intend to be lord as well as lady here?”
“I intend not to be any piece in your gaming, Rogear,” she returned swiftly, and there was no sign of uneasiness in her. He stared at her as one who studied some new and perhaps unaccountable thing. I thought I saw his eyes narrow a fraction. And then he looked not to her but to her mother.
“Congratulations, my dear lady. So you have made sure of your power this way also.”
“Naturally. Did you expect any less?” She laughed. Then he echoed that laughter.
“Indeed not, my dear lady. Ah, what a happy household we shall be. I can see many amusing evenings before us, trying this spell and that, testing each other’s defenses.”
“There will be no evenings at all,” growled Hlymer, “unless we unite upon what is to be done to hold Ulmsdale. And I see little chance of that where the great lords have failed. Ulmsport is open – they need only to bring up a goodly force and land. The keep can hold out for a day, mayhap two – but – “ He shrugged. “You have heard all the tales; we shall end like the rest.”
“I wonder.” Rogear had lost that shadow-smile. He glanced from Lady Tephana to Lisana and back again. “What if they cannot land? Wind and wave, wind and wave – “
Lady Tephana was intent, regarding him in the same searching way he had earlier looked upon Lisana. “That takes the Power.”
“Which you have in part, and my sweeting” – he nodded to the girl – “has in part, and to which I can add. Wind and wave have this advantage also. It will seem a natural catastrophe and one they will not fault us for. We shall be blameless. Follow in part your suggestion, my dear lady, but do not treat, only seem to treat. Then wind and wave-”
She moistened her lips with tongue tip. “It is a mighty summoning.”
“Perhaps one beyond your powers?”
“Not so!” She was quick to answer. “But it will take the three of us truly united to do such a thing, and we must have life force to draw upon.”
He shrugged. “It is a pity that we cleared the path so well of your lord’s devoted followers. Hate can feed such a force, and we could have used their hatred. That grumbler Jago, for example.”
“He drew steel on me!” Hlymer shrilled. “As if a broken man could touch me!”
“A broken man, no,” Rogear agreed. “Had he been the man he once was – well, I do not know, brother-to-be. At any rate there are others to lend us life force. If we decide – “
Lisana had lost her cool withdrawal. I saw her eyes shine with an avid hunger.
“We will!” she cried out. “Oh, we will!” For the first time Rogear showed a faint shadow of uneasiness, and he spoke to the Lady Tephana rather than to her daughter.
“Best curb your witchling, my dear lady. Some rush where prudence walks with double care.”
Lisana was on her feet so suddenly, her stool spun away as her skirts caught it.
“Do not lesson me, Rogear! Look to your own Power, if you have as much as you claim!”
“We shall all look to our Power,” Lady Tephana replied. “But such a plan takes preparation, and that we must turn to now.” She arose, and Hlymer went quickly to her side, offering his arm in clumsy courtesy. It was almost, I thought, as if he would rather be in her company than Rogear’s. Lisana followed, and Rogear was left alone.
My hand went to my sword hilt. What I had heard here filled me with horror, though it explained much. That these were working with Dark Power was plain, and they were not fresh come to such dealings either. That they – or at least the Lady Tephana (for never again in my mind did I think of her as my mother) – were old in such work, they had admitted. If my father had been ensorcelled, as Rogear had hinted, that explained much, and I could now forgive him all. The wall was broken – too late for me to tell him so.
What they would enter upon now was some great summoning of the Power. Perhaps it could save Ulmsdale – for their own purposes. But dared I set my own love of country against them? If they aroused some of the ancient forces of this brooding land against the enemy successfully, then, even though I hated them, still I must count them allies at this moment. So I watched Rogear go out from that chamber, and I did not challenge him.