I gasped and the bag fell to the floor. About the band on my wrist coiled a thin blue haze, as if the metal had given forth a puff of smoke. I needed no instruction as to the nature of what was in that bag. Black evil shouted aloud in my mind.
Stooping, I caught up the bag by the point of my knife and dropped it on the stone table, close to the rush light. Without laying finger on it I slit the cloth, using the knife point to dig and probe until I brought into sight a thing about the size and shape of a Sulcar trading coin. It was dull black, yet also veined in red, and those veins – No, they were not veins after all, but some runic pattern as involved as those on my wristlet.
This was a thing of Power, that I knew. But of the Dark Power. Anyone touching it –
Joisan! How had this evil thing come into her bed? In that moment such a fear rent me that I shouted, calling on Nalda who should certainly be near at hand.The fury of my voice echoed hollowly out into the courtyard. I called again, heard other voices upraised – “My Lord,” Nalda stood in the doorway, “what – “ I pointed to the bed. “Where is my lady?” She exclaimed, hurried forward, stark surprise on her face. “But-where else could she be, Lord? She was sleeping, as the drink would make her. I would take Gunnora’s Three Oaths that she could not stir until morning – “
“Did you leave this in her bed?” I had controlled my fear, outwardly at least. Now I used the knife to indicate the torn bag and its contents.
She leaned close, sniffing. “My lord, this is a soothing bag such as we make for the Lady Islaugha when she is restless. One of these beneath her pillow, and she is not so led by her fancies. It is of good herbs – “
“Do you also add this?” My knife point was close to the evil symbol.
She bent her head again. When she raised it and her eyes met mine, she looked stricken.
“Lord, I know not what that thing is, but-it is wrong!” Then something else burst upon her. “Lord – your eyes – you can see!”
I brushed that aside. Once that relief had filled my world, but of greater concern now was what had happened to Joisan. That she had been exposed to this thing of the Dark was agony to think on.
“Yes,” I answered shortly. “But my lady slept with this by her, and she is gone. I know not what deviltry has been wrought here – but we must find her soon!”
So the aroused company searched from sentry towers to bridge ends. As the one that worked was pulled up for the night, I could see no way Joisan could have gone ashore. Yet it was plain she was not hidden in any of the rooms we explored.
In the end I had to accept that Joisan was nowhere in the keep. There remained – the lake! I stood at the bridge gap looking into the water, holding my torch to be reflected from its surface. Rogear-there was only one who would have done this thing! But he had been well away when Joisan had been laid on her bed. Someone in this place had been his servant in the matter. And from that servant I would have the truth!
I summoned them all, men, women, children, into the courtyard, and on a stone there I placed that ominous thing which had been a weapon aimed at my lady. I no longer felt the heat of first anger in me. For there had crept a cold along my bones, and my mind fastened on one thing alone-there would be such a blood-price for Joisan as these dales had never seen.
“Your lady has been taken from you by treachery.” I spoke slowly, simply, so that the youngest there might understand. “While she was weak of body this evil thing was put into her bed, and so she was driven forth, perhaps to her death.” Now I ventured onto ground of which I was not sure, depending heavily on what I had learned from Riwal. “Those who meddle with such a thing as this carry the taint of it upon them. For it is an essence of evil as to soil beyond cleansing. Therefore you shall each and every one of you display your hands and – “
There was a swirl among the women, a cry. Nalda had seized upon one who stood beside her, held fast a screaming girl. I was with them in an instant.
The Lady Yngilda-I might have expected it.
I spoke to Nalda. “Bring her! Do you need help?”
“Not so!” She was a strong wench and she held the whimpering girl easily.
I spoke then to the others. “I shall settle this matter. And I lay upon you – let no one touch, for his spirit’s sake, what lies here.”
They did not move from the courtyard, and none followed us as we returned to Joisan’s chamber.
I thrust my torch into one of the wall rings, thus giving us more light. Nalda had twisted Yngilda’s arms behind her back, prisoning her wrists in a grip I think even few men could have broken. She swung her captive around to face me. The girl was blubbering, still jerking futilely to loose herself. Catching her by the chin, I forced her head up to meet me eye to eye.
“This was of your doing.” I made that an accusation, no question.
She wailed, looking half out of her wits. But she could not escape me so.
“Who set you to this? Rogear?”
She wailed again, and Nalda gave her a vigorous shake. “Answer!” she hissed into her ear.
Yngilda gulped. “Her lord-he said she must come to him-that would bring her-”
I believed that she spoke the truth of what Rogear had told her. But that Yngilda had been moved by any goodwill toward Joisan in the doing of this I knew was not so. That Rogear had left such a trap out of malice I could also believe.
“Bring her to her death,” I said softly. “You stand there with her blood on your hands, Yngilda, as surely as if you had used your kife!”
“No!” she cried. “She is not dead, not dead! I tell you she went – “
“Into the lake,” I finished grimly.
“Yes, but she swam – I watched – I did, I tell you!”
Again I believed she spoke truthfully, and that cold ice in me cracked a little. If Joisan had gone ashore, if she were under some ensorcellment – then I still had a chance to save her.
“It is a long swim – “
“She climbed ashore; I saw!” She screamed back at me in a frenzy of terror, as if what she read in my face near broke her wits.
I turned to the door. “Insfar, Angarl.” I summoned those two who had proven best at tracking. “Go ashore and look for any sign that someone came out of the lake!”
They were on their way at once. I came back to Nalda and her charge.
“I can do no more for you and your people now,” I told Nalda. “If my lady has been ensorcelled – “
“She is bespelled,” Nalda broke in. “Lord, bring her back safe from that!”
“What I can do, be sure that I will.” I said that as solemnly as any oath one could make with blood before kinsmen. “I must follow my lady. You will be safe here – at least for a time.”
“My Lord, think not of us. But rather fasten your thoughts upon my lady. We shall be safe. Now – what of this one?” She looked to Yngilda, who was weeping noisily.
I shrugged. Now that I had what I wanted from her, the girl was nothing to me. “Do as you will. But I lay upon you that she should be well watched. She has dealt with a Dark One and obeyed him. Through her more evil may come.”
“We shall see to her.” There was such a promise in Nalda’s voice that I thought Yngilda might well shiver.
I went back to the courtyard and took up the coin of evil on the point of my knife and carried it down the bridge that had been broken. There I threw it into the water. I would not bury it in the ground lest the unknowing chance upon it.
Dawn was breaking when I rode forth on Hiku with fresh provisions for the trail. Yngilda had spoken the truth; a swimmer had come ashore, crushing lake reeds and leaving a trace that could not be mistaken. Beginning there I must follow my lady.