"Yes," the Lord Leaf agreed. "Hear me: the Hammerhands are dead, yet House Lyrose survives-with the wizard Malraun standing behind them. So I need new rulers in Hammerhold."
He took a step forward, and tried a smile. "Such as the two of you. With any mates you care to take, of course."
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Two Tesmer jaws dropped open again, incredulity ruling them this time.
"What?" Belard asked disbelievingly, shaking his head.
Talyss had a swifter, surer tongue. "Rule as lord and lady? Over those who hate and mistrust us? While our parents sit a short ride away in their own castle, with their own claim to rightful rule over all Ironthorn?"
Jaklar met her eyes and nodded hard, as if accepting her view. "Yet hear me still!" he snapped. "The Lyrose women will soon be dead, punished by Malraun for their laxity, and your parents-who are, admit what you well know, the pawns of the other Doom, Narmarkoun of the greatfangs and the walking dead-will flee Ironthorn even sooner, running before Malraun can catch them."
"Leaving us to be blasted down by the both of them!" Belard protested. "To say nothing of what we'll have on our hands from all Ironthar-brother and sister ruling as husband and wife! — and our own kin! If none of them accept our rule, we'll soon be corpses, lord and lady of no more than a coffin each. If we're lucky enough to be slain cleanly, so there's something left of us to put in a coffin, that is!"
The priest looked to Talyss and then back at Belard, almost beseechingly. "What if your brothers and sisters rallied to you, and upheld you as Lord and Lady of all Ironthorn?"
Talyss shook her head, lip curling. "Man, you know nothing of House Tesmer, do you? Our darling kin wouldn't do that even if both Dooms, the Falcon and Forestmother, and our parents all ordered them to!"
"What if I used magic on them? Do any of them have influence over the others? I could-"
"Priest, you are a fool."
Those words were uttered by a new voice, that struck everyone in the hollow to startled silence.
It was loud, cold, scornful-and came from above their heads.
Cauldreth Jaklar's hand gave off a sudden glow as he looked up, but an answering wink of light blossomed from one of the great tree limbs overhead, and the voice spoke again.
"No, Jaklar, not this time. You're not the only ambitious snake in Falconfar able to lay hands on a little magic, you know. I've half a mind to blast you now, just to make sure you'll never again dare to think of using spells to control any of we Tesmers-or have mind enough left to do so."
"Nareyera!" Talyss spat.
The younger of her two elder sisters smiled sweetly down at her through the leaves. Nareyera Tesmer had long, glossy black hair; right now it was framing eyes that were dark with malicious glee.
"Talyss, dear, where did you learn to pleasure a man? Watching mares being serviced in the stables?"
Fire rising in her eyes, Talyss hefted her knife threateningly.
Nareyera sneered. "Even if I wasn't spell-shielded against warsteel, your poison is nothing to me, dear. You use dellarra-so lazy of you-and I've tasted it for years. All it does these days is give me a headache. Enough to annoy me, nothing more. Bury it in yon lying priest if you must feed it someone."
She shifted silently along the bough until she could glance clearly across the hollow-whereupon her smile broadened. "Now there's a dagger," she said, licking her lips. "I wouldn't mind a ride or two myself, Belard, if you've finished with Little Cat Spiteful, here."
Her brother glared up at her. "How long have you been here, Nareyera?"
"From the beginning. Two family wards walking together, out here in the dark, dark Raurklor, arouse my curiosity-and when I'm curious, I like to get up high to watch and listen. When those two wards obligingly stop right under me and start to interweave, I get very interested. As it turns out, I got more than interested-I got entertained. Mmhmm, did I. Enough to make a swiftly-aging woman warm and wet, even if it is my own brother and sister."
"Lady Tesmer," Cauldreth Jaklar snapped, "you would be wise-
"I am wise, priest. You're the one who should learn to become wise. You can begin by shutting your mouth, right now, and putting aside all thoughts of using any magic at all on any of us. Then, perhaps-just perhaps-I'll let you live."
"I-"
Belard took another step toward Jaklar. "Lord Leaf," he growled, "I very seldom agree with my sister Nareyera, but in this one matter I find that I do. Very much so."
"One moment," Talyss said then, raising her voice a trifle. "Jaklar, I believe it would be best if you left this part of the forest, very soon and walking briskly. However, I would have an answer from you first, and an honest one, if you're capable of telling truth. I believe I would like to hear you swear by the Forestmother on this."
Cauldreth Jaklar gave her a glare, but raised his brows and tilted his head to one side as if inviting her query.
"You put a proposition to us," Talyss Tesmer said to him, as calmly as if she was clad in finery, with armed Tesmer knights surrounding her, drawn swords backing her every word, rather than standing nude in a forest hollow, clad only in her long hair. "Tell us now: Why? Why did you want to see a Tesmer brother and sister ruling Ironthorn? What were you looking to gain from this? What hold did you plan to have over us?"
A slender, black-clad arm pointed down at him from the tree-limb above, rings on its fingers suddenly kindling to glowing life, and Belard sidestepped smoothly, to menace Cauldreth Jaklar from one side, almost from behind him. An instant later, Talyss moved too, her bare feet utterly silent, to put the priest squarely between her sword and Belard's.
The Lord Leaf's face slowly went pale.
"By the Holy Forestmother," he said slowly, "I-"
"No tricks, priest!" Nareyera snapped, from overhead. "No calling down your goddess on us! Just answer my sister's questions!"
Cauldreth Jaklar closed his eyes, let out a long, shuddering breath, and seemed to dwindle a little, before their eyes.
"The Forestmother," he said quietly, "wants me to tend to the forest, and not meddle as much in the lives of castle-folk and farmers as I have been. Yet she has charged me to make very sure that Ironthorn remains a place of modest farming and woodcutting, and is never home to folk who would even think of burning trees to cut into the Raurklor and expand beyond the vale. So I cannot rule Ironthar, but I need those who do to know the will of the Goddess, and agree with and uphold it."
He spread his hands. "I know well that Ironthar most like and trust other Ironthar, so I wanted those rulers to be of Ironthorn, not outlanders. I hoped you Tesmers would be my rulers. Yet it seems I was wrong."
He lifted his head, eyes all cruelty now, and spat a word none of them understood.
A moment later, every living tree branch and twig that was in, around, and over the hollow trembled violently. Then, with a hissing like the sound of a thousand angry serpents, they all started to grow, thrusting forward with frightening speed.
The priest smiled at the heart of it all, untouched, as the feverishly-growing branches reared up and stabbed at the three Tesmers like striking snakes.
Rod Everlar stood alone above the by-now-familiar heap of clothes that seemed determined to grant him no rest, and sighed.
Some Shaper of Falconfar. A prize fool, more like, rushing around trying to rescue Taeauna without knowing what I'm doing.