She took a quick glance to make sure the others could not hear. “Rap, I didn’t know that Sir—that Andor had made friends with you when he was here before.”
“Well, he did! I didn’t sell him horses in bars—”
“I’m sure you didn’t.” Even to think of Andor still hurt. “But did he ever speak… I mean, you must have talked… Did he ever mention Kinvale, or…” Deep breath. “Did he ever talk about me?”
Rap looked blank. “You mean he knew you before? He told me he didn’t even know where Kinvale was, exactly! And he certainly never told me he’d met you already!” He seemed to be growing angrier and angrier as he spoke.
Relieved, Inos gave him another soothing smile. “Come, then, let’s see what we can do about these imps.” She led him back to the others. Despicable Andor! Why were men all such liars and cheats? So faithless!
She went over to Sagorn, who was making polite conversation with Kade.
“Well,” she demanded. “What are we to do?”
Sagorn scratched his chin thoughtfully. “We have four ways out of this, I think.”
“We do?” Inos found that unbelievable, but he seemed confident, so perhaps the celebrated sage was about to justify his reputation.
“The simplest would require a friendly sorcerer. You don’t happen to have one handy, do you?” He chuckled ponderously, like some wise old grandfather teasing children.
Inos felt a surge of annoyance at the mockery. Rap sensed it, also, and rolled his eyes.
Sagorn saw that and scowled. “Secondly, then, we could hide in the topmost room and trust the aversion spell, but that seems to have worn thin now. So we only have two choices, wouldn’t you say?”
“The Darad man killed the woman in Fal Dornin to strengthen his power?” Aunt Kade asked, and for a moment Inos was baffled.
Sagorn, though, had turned to Kade with surprise and perhaps respect. “Yes. To tell a word weakens it.”
“Halves it?”
“Not necessarily halves it, apparently. It is a great mystery to me why there should be any weakening at all; if you tell your favorite recipe to a friend, that does not spoil the next cake you bake.” He scowled. “Even the most respected texts do not agree! Perhaps the weakening would be a half if you were the only person who knew the word. Would telling to a third person reduce its power by a third? Then by a fourth when you told another? I don’t know, after a lifetime.”
Kade was still blinking at all that as the old man plunged ahead with his lecture, waving a bony finger to make his points as if he had been bottling up his knowledge inside himself for years and welcomed an audience.
“So not necessarily a half. After all, the words have been around a long time, so each may already be known by many people, perhaps dozens. One more person may make no difference or a lot. And how could you compare magic, or weigh it? It must be as hard to measure as beauty. Can you say that Jalon is twice as fine a singer as another, or three times? That a poem is twice as lyrical? But a shared word is weakened—until someone who knows it dies. Then the others' power is strengthened again. That is why they are so rarely shared, why they are usually passed on deathbeds—as your father told you his?” He peered from under shaggy white brows at Inos.
She hesitated and then nodded.
“You must guard it well! You have been displaying remarkable endurance for your age, child. Andor noticed tonight and so did Yggingi. You are of royal blood, and a very determined young lady, but the words have that effect on people, a sort of armor. Of course neither could be certain, but they both assumed that you had been told the word.”
“Everyone seems to have known about it but me!”
“They are always kept secret. I found hints of the Krasnegar word in a very old text. That was why I—actually it was Jalon then, also—why we first came here and met your father. He was still crown prince at the time. He and I became friends and did some journeying together. Knowing that he would inherit a word, I made sure that he met the others, so he would know them if they came after him later. They all felt that I had betrayed them, of course.” He sighed deeply. “It is not only the others' evil memories that are a burden. They have mine, also, and I can keep no secrets from them.”
Inos thought about that. Perhaps it was not so surprising that this strange group of invisible men would strive to be released from their curse.
“But this word of power that you—Andor—learned from the woman in Fal Dornin? It did not break the spell?”
Sagorn stared at the floor sadly, shaking his head. “No. One is not enough. Probably we need three or maybe even four. And, knowing a word, we dared not then approach a sorcerer, for sorcerers are always on the lookout for more power.” He rose stiffly. “The imps will be fetching axes. I am slow on stairs, so perhaps we should begin?”
“Begin what?”
“Begin our climb,” he said. “We must go to the chamber of puissance at the top of the tower.”
“Why?”
He bared irregular old teeth in a triumphant grimace. “To consult the magic casement, of course.”
TEN
Insubstantial pageant
Faithful found
1
Rap could tell that Inos had not expected the suggestion, for she colored angrily. He was managing not to stare at her, for when he did, and their eyes met, he was sure he started blushing at once, and certainly he felt as if he were all hands and feet and worried if his hair was a mess—it always was, of course… So he was pretending not to look.
But he could not keep his farsight off her. She was wonderful!
What fools they were, all those stupid old men! Why had they not seen what a marvelous queen she would be? She was a queen to her fingertips, noble and regal even in those bedraggled old clothes. He had been amazed by her beauty in the forest and he was still in awe of that, but now he could sense her grace, her royal bearing, her majesty. Her father’s death had not broken her spirit, nor the horrible fright and disappointment he, Rap, had been forced to inflict on her to unmask Andor.
Any lesser woman would have blamed him for that, would have cursed him and spurned him. But not Inos! She had royal courage. She was not afraid of his farsight, like all his other friends had been.
Kinvale had changed her. She was no longer the girl he had grown up with, the playmate of his childhood. He felt a little sad about that.
But he had always known that she would be his queen, not… not anything else. He had said he would serve her, and so he would, and be proud to. And right now he was proud of the way she was standing up to that stringy old doctor with his sneering manner and stupid jokes about sorcerers.
“My father wouldn’t let you do that!” she said angrily.
“Ah, yes, the spy,” Sagorn said unpleasantly. “You heard more than you admitted that day, then?”
Inos blushed harder and looked furious. Rap felt himself bristle, wishing he could stop this sinister old scholar from insulting his queen. Whatever the king had said about him being trustworthy, he had obviously betrayed Rap to Andor.