It was very still in the vast hall.
Then: "I pray you," the Warden said, "leave your horses to my deputies and accept my hospitality. Advise me of whatever complaints you have, with names where you may know them. Our lord will see justice done."
A cold crept through the sudden warmth, a sense of meshes closing. "It is a trap," Vanye murmured in his own tongue. "Liyo,I beg you, no."
"My lord Warden," Morgaine said gravely, gently, "I should fear then—for your own well-being. I am not a comfortable guest. The Warden of Morund and his men are in my custody, as I think your lord will sanction when he hears what I have to say. The South-warden has come into more knowledge of my business than your lord may like, as it is. Andhe has created difficulties for me. I have promised him if he makes amends and if his lord will release him, I will take him and his men with me, and save their lives. But I am notdisposed to leave this world with an entourage of half your lord's councillors and his wardens. I advise you in all earnestness, my lord of Seiyyin Neith: my affairs are secret, and I have told you enough already to put you at some risk. Do as I tell you. Send this message directly to your lord: Morgaine Anjhuran is here to see him, under circumstances you may explain to him."
"Anj—"
Morgaine spelled it. "Be precise. Be very precise, my lord. Do you understand? Your safety and his are in question."
"I—have no direct contact with the high lord. I can gain it. It will take time. I beg you—step down, rest your horses, let us offer you food and drink—"
"We will wait here."
"A drink, at least—"
"We have our own supplies, my lord. We trust your hospitality includes haste."
"My lady." The Warden looked profoundly offended, and worried. "It will be some little time. I beg you understand. Stand down and rest. Take it or no, my people will offer you what hospitality we have. Your leave, my lady."
He inclined his head and walked away into the shadows.
They were alone then, and not alone, in this chill place where the smallest move echoed, and the stamp of an iron-shod hoof rang like doom.
"We have disquieted him," Morgaine said quietly, in her most obscure Kurshin accents. "That may be good or ill. Vanye—give me the stone."
He gave it. His heart hammered against his ribs.
"Come," she said, and sent Siptah suddenly forward, down the vacant aisle, toward the sealed doors.
There were running footsteps beyond the columns behind him, a quick spurt that died away in the direction the Warden had gone.
Someone had sped to advise him.
And Morgaine veered off into shadow, the other side of a vast column three quarters of the way down the long aisle, drew in and wheeled Siptah about as Vanye arrived, as Chei and Hesiyyn and Rhanin clattered in close behind him.
"What are you doing?" Chei asked, a young voice, which rose incongruously in pitch.
Light flared, white and terrible as she opened the case of the gate-jewel. It touched columns, faces, the wild eyes of the shying horses—and damped as suddenly as she closed her hand about it, veiling it in flesh, awful as it was.
"Give it to me!" Vanye exclaimed, knowing the feel of it, imagining the pain of handling it this close to Mante. But she held it fast, letting a little of its flickering light escape to strike the stone pillar beside them.
"Watch the surrounds!" she ordered. "Chei—what is our host saying?"
There was no word for a moment, in which Vanye loosed his bow from his shoulder, set its heel in his stirrup and strung it in the strength fear lent.
"He is reporting our presence—our breach of his orders—" Chei said.
"To whom?"
"To whoever is watching—I do not know—I do not know who that would be.—He reports himself in danger. He is going to open the doors. He hopes we will leave—"
"—into their reach," Morgaine said. There was pain in her voice. "Has he sent what I bade him?"
"No—or we have not seen it—"
"Take it. Doit."
"Send what?Who areyou, that he should know you—curse you, woman, have you lied to me?"
"Believe everything you heard me tell the Warden— Sendthe cursed message, man, send it exactly as I gave it and keep sending till we have answer, or take your chances with the lord Warden's archers! Or with that thing outside! Make your choice!"
Chei reached. For a second the stone flared bright between them, blinding, light glistening on Morgaine's pale face, on his, which grimaced as he took it, and the red roan and the gray horse shied apart, both fighting the rein.
Engines began to clank and chain to rattle at the other entrance.
A seam of daylight lanced through the hall, blinding bright. The horses sidestepped and fretted, more and more panicked, doubtful between the gate-force in the air, and the racket and that view of escape.
"It is more powerful than his," Chei said between his teeth. He used the shuttering of the lid to send, less sure in his use of it than the dimmer, rapid flickers of the Warden's sending, which came through as weak pulses in his intervals. "We are drowning his sending—Rhanin! are the warders moving?"
"No, my lord," the bowman said.
"If the gate at Mante should open," Hesiyyn said, "my lord, and you are holding that thing—"
"Send and wait for an answer," Morgaine bade Chei harshly. "Again and again—the same message. Watch around us! They have only to get one gate-jewel positioned—"
"My lady!" a voice called down the aisles. "My lady, cease! You are free to go!"
"Ignore it," Morgaine said under her breath. "I take it that the lord Warden is lying."
"He is lying," Chei said, reading the silence of the stone in the intervals. "He has never reached— Ah!"
Opal shimmer flared, rapid pulses. Chei cupped his hand about it, and the muscles of his face tensed with pain. "Skarrin," he said hoarsely. "Skarrin himself—has just discovered treachery—has bidden silence. He—knows your presence. And your name. He—tells the Warden—let us pass—not to—oppose us.—He asks who wields this st-stone, my lady."
"Answer him. Tell him it is ours. And we have come to talk with him."
It needed a moment. Chei's face stood out in taut-jawed relief in the flashes, that came brighter from the stone, brighter than the glare from the open door.
Then: "He will hear us," Chei said, hoarsely. And shut the case, letting his arm fall. "He forbids—more use of the stone."
Morgaine was silent a moment. It was an affront she was paid, by Skarrin's order. She reined close and recovered the pyx.
"He bids us," Chei said, "come to Mante."
"On his mercy," Vanye murmured. "Among the stones out there."
"It is Shein's enemies," Chei said in a ragged voice. "Myenemies—in court—who killed all my Society. They have made a fatal mistake, thinking this was my doing—that you were my prisoners. They thought to kill us three—that is what they are about; and gain credit for it—like the lord Warden. Only he had to ask his masters what to do. And now his own head will be on the block. They will disavow him, or try to. They will not attack us. Not now."
"They could only lose by it," Hesiyyn said. "Either the Overlord will destroy us out there—or you have favor with him. in either case, lady, we are in Skarrin shand, for good or ill."