To Kevin’s ears, she made that occupation sound as unsuitable for a lady as pig-farming. Lydia couldn’t have missed the snub, but she only laughed. “Oh, I hardly thought it fair to compete. I mean, I’m not one of the count’s people.”
“But surely you would like a chance to demonstrate your skills.” It was a very thinly veiled command.
Lydia only shrugged. “Nope! Much nicer just to sit and watch. Besides, at such a short distance how could I miss? Right, Kevin?”
Thank you, Lydia! he thought gratefully. The last thing he wanted was to be left alone with Charina. “Uh, right.”
“Ah, but I think you really should go down there,” a suave voice purred. Kevin saw Lydia tense as Count Volmar stepped forward to take her arm. “My dear young lady, you would hardly wish to deprive us of the pleasure of watching a true professional at work, now, would you?”
She shrugged free of the count’s grip. “I’ll say the same thing I told the Lady Charina: it doesn’t seem fair. I mean, how is it going to look if a mere mercenary like myself beats your guys?”
“That hardly seems likely,” the count muttered, miffed. “My archers are not exactly children. But please,” he added, urbane smile returning, “do give us a chance to judge your skill for ourselves.”
It wasn’t a request. With a sigh and a glance at Kevin, Lydia shouldered her bow and went down to join the other archers. Charina moved closer to the bardling with a pleased little coo. But before she could take his arm, a cheerful voice called out:
“How goes it, my lords, my lady?”
“Eliathanis!” Kevin cried in relief.
The White Elf swept down into a bow far more graceful than any human could have managed. Slanted eyes glinting with wry amusement, he said, “What a fine day for an archery contest! Ah, I see our own Lydia is among the contestants.”
“You would have a better view of them down there,” Charina suggested, but Eliathanis only smiled.
“Why, no, lady, if you will forgive me for correcting you. I have a much better view from up here. A better view of ... everything.” Fair face impassive, the elf crossed his arms with the air of someone who has no intention of moving or being moved.
That’s all well and good, Kevin thought uneasily, seeing the anger flickering in Charina’s eyes. Apparently she and the count thought more forceful measures would be out of character just now. But you, and Lydia and Naitachal can’t keep watching over me forever.
Sooner or later, danger or no, the bardling knew he was going to have to face the sorceress all by himself.
It was sooner. That night Kevin found a guard at his door “to protect him from unwelcome disturbances.”
In the days that passed, the bardling caught no more than distant glimpses of his friends. But, he tried to convince himself, there was something comforting in knowing that they were taking turns watching over him, even from afar.
Not that mere watching was going to do any good if the sorceress decided to attack.
Ah, yes, but Charina wasn’t showing any more interest in the bardling than a properly brought-up young lady might show in a young man she fancied. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the undercurrent of uneasiness running through his mind, Kevin knew he probably would have enjoyed her attention. Or even, amazing thought, to have become a little surfeited by it Somehow Charina was managing to almost always be at his side, the very image of a slightly spoiled but charming niece to a count, cooing and fluttering until the bardling found himself wondering just why he’d been foolish enough to be attracted to her in the first place. But then, I didn’t really have a choice about it. It—wasn’t realty Charina I was attracted to after all. Or at least f don’t think it was.
Or—
Ach, he didn’t know what to think any more! Kevin wandered blindly through the castle gardens, for the moment blessedly alone, the gravel path crunching under his shoes, sweet, spicy herbal scents filling his nose, and puzzled over the fact that the girl or woman or whatever she was hadn’t tried anything blatantly sorcerous on him.
Or had she? Now chat he thought about it, Kevin could have sworn that from time to time during the week he’d felt the eeriest tingling, as though Naitachal’s protective armor of spells was being tested again and again. So far that armor had held up.
Oh, nonsense! The whole thing was probably the product of his own overwrought imagination. How could Charina be anyone but Charina?
She couldn’t.
But then again, maybe ...
Kevin shook his head impatiently. Enough wavering! Whatever was happening or not happening, he didn’t dare let his guard down. The week of celebration was over today, and if Charina really was Carlotta, this would be her last chance to try ensnaring him. And if she couldn’t get the manuscript from him, then she would surely try to—
The bardling nearly jumped straight into the air when a soft hand brushed his arm. “Kevin?” Charina’s sweet voice asked. “Is anything wrong?”
‘‘Uh, n-no, no, of course not.” Trying to get his to shout to her that he wasn’t under her power as she believed. Thank the Powers that Naitachal’s anti-beguilement spells had worked—and that they’d been too subtle for Carlotta to detect Thank the Powers as well that Carlotta too had been constrained to subtlety; otherwise even his feigned cooperation would have been transparently false.
I only hope Eliathanis can let the others know I might be in trouble. The bardling glanced at Carlotta and caught, just for an instant, a suspicious glint of hardness in those lovely blue eyes, a hardness all out of place for one other supposed youth and innocence. A hardness that smacked of sorcery.
Really big trouble, Kevin amended unhappily.
“Come on, Kevin!’’
Carlotta batted her eyelashes at him in a way the bardling might have found adorable—if it wasn’t such an incongruous gesture on the part of a sorceress who’d kill him if he made one wrong move.
“Why, if I didn’t know better,” she chirped, “I’d think you were trying to avoid being alone with me.” Carlotta giggled girlishly. “That’s not true, now, is it?”
“Uh ... no—Of course not.” Yes, dear Powers, yes! How am I going to get out of this alive?
Not by letting Carlotta think there was something wrong with her beguilement spells, that was sure! But what else could he do? There wasn’t much time to waste, yet his thoughts seemed to be racing around and around his mind like so many terrified wild things. The only thing Kevin could decide to do was play the befuddled bumpkin. Ha, that shouldn’t be so difficult! Right now it was going to be far easier to fake stupidity and bedazzlement than to say or do anything clever!
Aren’t there any servants around? Anyone who might suggest that the niece of a count shouldn’t be alone with a young man?
No, of course not That would be far too simple. The casde corridors were as empty as though there wasn’t anyone else alive in the whole place. Besides, Kevin thought wearily, all the servants were probably under Carlotta’s control, anyhow.
All too soon, they reached the library.
Kevin tried the handle. “The door seems to be locked,” he said, stalling desperately for time.
“No, it’s not It’s never locked. Here, let me see.”
Carlotta tried the handle, which turned with treacherous ease. She glanced sharply at Kevin, and the bardling gave her a weak smile.