I wish I could really use it! Then we’d see who had the final laugh!
No. A true Bard never used his talents for harm.
Blast it to Darkness!
Clenching his jaws in frustration, Kevin set about putting his belongings back in place. By the time he was done, he was alone in the hall, and by the time he had eaten and dressed, he’d gotten his emotions under control.
After all, he had been spending his time with Count Volmar’s niece, equal to equal. Nothing these silly boys, these ... mere servants could do was worth his notice!
At least Kevin thought he believed all that.
As he was on his way to the library, determined once and for all to find the missing manuscript and copy it, a sweet voice called to him, “Where are you going in such a hurry?”
Why did he suddenly feel so guilty? “Charina, I—”
“The weather’s so nice and warm today! And I have a wonderful idea for a picnic, just the two of us.”
Oh, how could he resist those lovely blue eyes? Grimly, Kevin reminded himself of the dream and his neglected duty. “I’m sorry, Charina,” he said with very real regret. “I can’t. I really would love to go riding or picnicking or anything else with you, truly. But, well, I have a job to do, and I’d better do it.”
Charina stared at him as though he’d just told her something obscene. “You’d turn me down?” she gasped.
“Please, I didn’t mean—”
“You would! No, no, don’t try to argue. I quite understand. You’re bored with me.”
“No!”
“Yes, you are.” She tossed her head. “If you don’t want to come with me, you don’t have to. I can do very well without you, you—you boy\”
With that, Charina flounced angrily away, leaving Kevin standing lost and unhappy behind her.
Count Volmar looked up in surprise as Carlotta stormed into the solar, shedding the persona of Charina like a cloak and throwing herself down in a chair, eyes wild, red hair crackling about her.
“I cannot bear being that simpering little fool of a girl a moment longer!” she raged.
She looked so totally inhuman in her sorcerous fury that Volmar shuddered. “I can’t say I blame you,” he said soothingly, and saw just a touch of that fury fade. “I never did like little girls. All sweetness and cuteness—Bah.” He moved to the small table by the wall that held decanters of wine. Without asking her, Volmar filled a goblet and handed it to her. As Carlotta sipped, he took his seat again and asked, “Do you really need to be her any longer?”
The princess glared at him over the goblet’s rim in suddenly renewed anger, sorcerous hair like wildfire about her. “I don’t know!” she snapped. “I feel as though I don’t know anything any more!”
Warily, like a man tiptoeing on the edge of a fiery pit, Volmar asked, “You haven’t been able to find the manuscript, I take it?”
“Curse the thing, no! You either, obviously.”
“Obviously.” Ambitious though he was, Volmar admitted to himself, he was not about to do anything as reckless as trying to hide a probably magical artifact from a sorceress—Particularly one who right now was ablaze with rage and frustration. “You’re sure the boy isn’t deliberately hiding it somewhere in the library.”
Carlotta shook her head. “He may have tried to do so at first, but he was quite definitely on the verge of panic while hunting for the thing when I entered as Charina. No ...” she added thoughtfully, “he has nothing to do with its disappearance. There is almost certainly a spell surrounding the manuscript.”
“A spell! I thought you could detect such things.”
“Oh, it’s a very subtle one if even my sorceries haven’t been able to sense it. And, since the manuscript seems to be designed to deliberately hide itself, even from me, it must be a very powerful spell indeed.”
Volmar fought down a new shudder. Bad enough to have a sorcerous ally; he understood Carlotta and the dangers she represented after all these years. Or at least he hoped he did. But the thought that there might be some new, unknown, alien magic lurking in his castle as well, magic even Carlotta couldn’t identify, Just waiting to strike ...
“What about the boy?” That came out more sharply than he’d intended; he was struggling to keep his voice from shaking—”You told me he has the rudiments of Bardic Magic about him. Could he have somehow—”
“The rudiments. It’s a nuisance that it should have begun waking now, but the boy hasn’t yet mastered even the least Powerful of magic songs.”
“He still might know more than he admits.”
“I doubt it.” Carlotta sighed impatiently. “I’ve seen more of him in the past two weeks than I ever want to see of anyone. Still, he is the only due we have to the manuscript.”
“But what if his magic does come to life?” Volmar stirred uneasily in his chair. “I don’t like the boy. He’s too ... too ...”
“Honest?” Carlotta’s voice was sly.
“Unpredictable,” the count countered. “I think we should be rid of him now, while we still can.”
“Not yet.” Her glance held a disconcerting hint of contempt. “Volmar, you always were a nervous sort. Let me try to explain this to you as dearly as I can: the boy is not a threat to us.”
“Not yet,” the count echoed darkly.
Carlotta’s eyes flashed. “Challenging my wisdom?” she asked, ever so softly. “Volmar, dear little Volmar, don’t try to cross me. I could destroy you, little man, with a glance.”
The count froze, all at once very much aware of how close Death could be. One wrong word ... “Why, Princess!” He forced the words from a mouth that suddenly seemed too dry for speech. “Have I ever been anything but your loyal ally?”
“To serve your own goals.”
“Well, yes, I won’t lie about that. But in doing so I serve yours as well, for both our sakes! Someday, my princess, you will wrest the throne from that fool—”
“ ‘That fool,’ as you so charmingly put it, is my brother.”
“Your half-brother only. Carlotta, we both know you aren’t bound by any misguided sisterly love. Someday you will take the throne—And when you do, my dear princess, I know you will remember your friends.”
“Friends.” Carlotta’s glance flicked over him. the contempt now only just barely hidden. But then she shrugged. “We shall watch the boy a bit longer. I will make one last effort to win him, body and mind. And if I still cannot subvert him to my side, I give you permission to rid us of him.” She paused. “Even as you did our poor, sweet Charina.”
Volmar waved that off. A girl hadn’t any business being up on the ramparts anyhow, not without even a guard for company, let alone doing something as foolish as leaning over the edge of the crenellations to watch birds fly by. It had almost been too easy to help her join that flight. However briefly. And not a soul could say it had been anything but an accident. “We shouldn’t wait,” the count insisted. “I have a feeling—”
“Come now! Leave prescience to me. We can’t be rid of him just yet. We still may need him to find the manuscript if we cannot.” She shuddered delicately. “ Even if it means I must once more take on the persona of that pretty little fool of a—No, wait ...” The princess straightened in her chair, eyes fierce. “That may not be necessary. The boy has a head full of wild romance. What if ...? Ha, yes, of course! I already laid the groundwork without realizing it when I told him I would go riding alone.”