“And you can’t think I would return until we’ve found Alusair!”
Vangerdahast slammed his spellbook shut. “Enough, Princess! Your games have already cost the lives of too many good men.”
“My games, Vangerdahast?”
“Your games,” the wizard insisted. “Were you not the one who insisted that we destroy the orc tribe ‘like Alusair would?’”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean-“
“And now we have lost Ryban’s entire company.”
“How can you call that my fault?” Tanalasta was genuinely hurt. “They were supposed to loose a few arrows and flee!”
“That does not change what happened,” Vangerdahast insisted. “You have been playing with men’s lives, and I will have no more of it.”
Tanalasta narrowed her eyes. “I’m sorry for the loss of Ryban and his men, Vangerdahast, but I am not playing at anything. If you and the king are, tell me now.”
“The king is quite serious, I assure you. He will not have an order of spell-beggars placed in such a position of influence.”
“He won’t, Vangerdahast?” Tanalasta demanded. “Or you won’t?”
“Our thoughts are the same on this matter,” insisted Vangerdahast. “But that has nothing to do with your imminent return to Arabel. It’s treason for you to blackmail the crown by placing yourself-and others-in this kind of danger.”
“It’s only blackmail if the king is bluffing,” Tanalasta said. “And if he is, the treason lies on your head, not mine. I have done nothing but take him at his word.”
“The king does not bluff his own daughter.”
“Then our duty is clear,” said Tanalasta. “The king sent us to find the crown princess, and this ghazneth creature only makes it that much more urgent for us to do so.”
Vangerdahast exhaled loudly, clearly frustrated by the dilemma in which he found himself. Tanalasta turned back to her duties as a watchman, scanning the stonemurk for the first dark hint of wings on the horizon.
“Princess, be reasonable,” said Vangerdahast. “While everything you say is true, even you must admit your father hardly had something like this in mind when he sent you-“
“I can’t know what the king had in mind,” Tanalasta said. “What I do know is that I am here, and that the king himself charged me with finding Alusair.”
Silently, the princess added that she needed to complete her mission precisely because the king had not expected the mission to be dangerous. Allowing the phantom to force her back to Arabel would only confirm his belief that she needed to be protected. But if she actually located Alusair and discovered what was happening in the Stonelands, perhaps he would begin to have confidence in the decisions she would one day make as queen.
After a moment, Vangerdahast sighed. “Very well. If you must pretend not to understand what this trip is really about, I shall explain it to you.”
Tanalasta held up her hand. “That won’t be necessary, Vangerdahast. What you don’t seem to understand is that I do know what this is about. The war wizards are afraid the royal priests will take their place, you’re afraid you’ll soon have a high harvestmaster competing for the monarch’s ear, and the king is afraid of making you both angry.”
“Our reservations are hardly of such a petty nature,” Vangerdahast replied. “I am concerned about the jealousy of the other religions, while the question of divided loyalties is entirely insurmountable-“
“Yes, yes. I know the arguments, and I know you’re only thinking of the realm. You think of nothing else.” Tanalasta paused, then added in an acid voice, “I would never question your loyalty, only your belief that no one else can possibly know what is good for Cormyr.”
Vangerdahast actually flinched. “Milady! That is unfair.”
“It is also true. Maybe you are the only one who knows what is good for Cormyr. Even I must admit that you’re usually right about everything else.” Tanalasta paused to gather her courage, then continued, “What you don’t seem to understand is me. If I can’t be queen in my own way, then I will not be queen at all.”
Vangerdahast regarded the princess as though meeting her for the first time. “By the Weave! You would refuse the throne on account of a handful of priests?”
“I would refuse it on many accounts,” said Tanalasta. “Which is why it falls to me to find Alusair. I seem to be the only one who takes this situation seriously.”
Vangerdahast turned and gazed into the stonemurk.
Tanalasta left him to his thoughts, content to believe she had won the argument. They remained that way, each plotting the next maneuver in their battle of wills, until a blurry black V appeared to the east. The thing was so tiny that had the princess not been looking for it in that very section of sky, she would not have seen it at all.
The distant shape grew larger at an alarming pace, and soon Tanalasta could see the thing’s leathery wings rising and falling as it streaked through the stonemurk. It came parallel to their hiding place on the mountain and continued past without turning, and the princess hoped for their sake the caravan drivers and any survivors from Ryban’s company were long gone.
Once it had disappeared around the shoulder of the mountain, Vangerdahast turned in the approximate direction of the outcropping and stacked three stones on the rim of the little gully. “It will be coming from there.”
“Coming?” Tanalasta asked.
“If you’re right about it hearing our ring-talk,” the wizard explained. He plucked a wand from inside his weathercloak, then added, “Strictly speaking, I will be using a sending, though I doubt it makes any difference. If the thing can hear one form of telepathy, I suspect it will hear another.”
Tanalasta frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Finding Alusair, of course,” said the wizard. “You did say that was what you wanted to do.”
“I meant by looking for her, not inviting the ghazneth to come after us.”
“And where, exactly, do you intend to look?” Vangerdahast asked.
“You don’t know?” Tanalasta asked, disbelieving. “You haven’t even tried to locate her?”
“What’s the use? When she doesn’t want to be found, she takes off her signet and puts on her Hider.” The wizard was referring to the magic ring of privacy Alusair had prevailed upon Azoun to have made. By slipping it on, she could prevent even Vangerdahast’s magic from locating her. “Even if she isn’t wearing the Hider, Alusair moves quickly. There’s no use trying to locate her until you’re in a position to start the chase.”
“And until you’ve had time enough to talk her sister out of her inconvenient ideas,” Tanalasta added dryly.
Vangerdahast shrugged. “Perhaps. It still leaves us with the same dilemma: where to look.”
“Since she was looking for Emperel, sooner or later she would check the Cavern of the Sleeping Sword,” said Tanalasta. The cavern was the secret resting place of the Lords Who Sleep, the company of slumbering warriors whom Emperel was charged with safeguarding. “I thought we could start there.”
“And lead the ghazneth there?” Vangerdahast countered. “That doesn’t strike me as very wise. We are trying to keep the company’s location secret from our enemies, you know.”
Tanalasta narrowed her eyes at his condescension. “So where would you start?”
“Why not by asking Alusair herself?” Vangey replied.
“Because Alusair isn’t wearing her signet,” Tanalasta said, exasperated. “And because we have grounds to believe she has a good reason not to be.”
“True, but that reason is over there looking for us.” Vangerdahast pointed toward the unseen outcropping. “This is probably the only chance we’ll have to contact Alusair without putting her life in danger. Besides, we can test your theory about the ghazneth eavesdropping on our mind talk.”
The wizard did not point out that if Tanalasta was right, they would have to move quickly to avoid a fight with the ghazneth. Judging by Vangerdahast’s preparations, though, he did not really intend to avoid the fight.
“Before I agree, tell me what you’re planning.” Tanalasta gestured at the hodgepodge of knickknacks arrayed on the boulder. There was a clove of garlic, a sprig of rosemary, a vial of holy water, and several other strange items. ‘What’s all that for?”