The hargaunt chimed again. Horaundoon put the stone back into the claws, and smiled a slow wolf’s smile. “The moment they touch this mindworm of mine, a spell floods into them, imparting such intense pleasure-the greatest rapture most of them will ever know-that they clutch and hold it, enthralled by the sensations, as it melts into them. Conquering another mind in this ripe-for-plucking kingdom.”
The Erduskings were a suspicious house, it seemed. Two hulking guards-in full plate armor, all black enameled and teased into spike points in many impractical places, and worn with skirling, clashing scabbard chains-met her at the grand entry doors with their visors down and pointed the way she was to proceed with the spikes on the heads of their battle-axes. Then they escorted her, their boots making ominous thunder on the thick owlbear rugs.
Up a grand and seemingly endless stair with steps broad enough to be landings, then down a passage past the stuffed and mounted heads of many beasts who looked quite annoyed to have been slain by an Erdusking, to the double doors that led to an audience room furnished in old Erdusking armor and yellowing marble heads of Erdusking ancestors.
Narantha’s quarry stood alone in the center of the room, smiling ever so slightly. The eldest son and heir of House Erdusking had to dismiss the guards no less than three times before they reluctantly stepped out of the room, closed its doors-and undoubtedly took up swords-drawn positions on the other side of them.
The treasure they were guarding seemed hardly worth the trouble.
Malasko Erdusking was tall, hook-nosed, and cruel of face and manner, supercilious when he wasn’t being openly lustful. The reek of his oiled, dyed, jet-black hair made her nostrils flare and her throat tighten, and Narantha had to fight for the control of her face and eyes she’d need to fulfill her latest delivery for Uncle Lorneth.
Thankfully, like many nobles, Malasko saw what he wanted to see.
“You shudder for me, I cannot help but notice,” he purred archly, shifting his long limbs to strike yet another pose. The man seemed to live in a series of indolent poses, impressive in his skin-tight black hose and tunic.
Malasko saw where her gaze rested and smiled a velvet-soft smile. “We seem very well suited for each other. Don’t you agree?”
Narantha ducked her head a little, letting him think her smile was one of shy desire. “My lord,” she murmured, “I need…”
She let her words hang, to see how he filled the silence.
His smile broadened. “A lord and master worthy of your beauty,” he breathed. “Little Crownsilver lass, I am the answer to your every need.”
Afraid she might giggle, Narantha bit her lip, cast her eyes down to the eternally snarling head of the dire bear rug at her feet, and murmured, “I begin to believe so, Lord Erdusking. Yet, as you must have heard, I am, above all, obedient. To you, if we are wed, but until then to my parents-and ’tis their will that I see all unmarried noblemen of suitable age in the realm who will receive me, ere I make a far narrower choice. I have other mansions and men to visit yet, I fear.”
“Ah, but surely none can even begin to-”
“Lord Erdusking, this may well be so, but I follow my father’s will in this.” She raised her eyes to him, and said almost pleadingly, “And while it would take a man of Cormyr-shaking bravery to defy Lord Maniol Crownsilver, any man who would think to defy the Lady Jalassa Crownsilver must be several different kinds of babbling fool. A description that obviously can never fit you, Lord.”
Malasko was momentarily-for the first time in more than a season-at a loss for words. Laughing uneasily-had he just been insulted, or had he not? — he said soothingly, “Of course not, Lady Narantha.”
“Yet so that hope fades not entirely from your eyes,” his shapely visitor said huskily, taking a small, glossy coffer from her chatelaine, “I deeply desire that you accept this small token from me, to remind you of my desires, that burn always, close beneath the smiles and manners I present to the watching world.”
She held out the coffer, opening it with deft elegance.
Malasko Erdusking was chuckling, “Ah, Lady, such a gift is hardly necessary, between such as we two…”
His voice trailed away as he caught sight of the gem-impressively large even to the wealthiest of nobles, which the Erduskings were not-and his eyes grew larger.
Then he peered closer, and his eyes grew larger still.
Plucking the gem from the coffer, Malasko held it under his nose for a searching examination of its depths, his gaze filling with wonder.
He stared for a long time, swallowing once, ere he lifted his eyes from the gem in his hand to look at her with a gaze that smoldered with promise.
The Lady Narantha Crownsilver met that gaze with a look that sizzled. Parting her lips, she licked them very slowly, as one of her hands strayed to her own throat, and caressed it languidly.
She was lifting that hand to her mouth when the gem sank entirely from view into Malasko’s fingers, and his look of naked lust slid into blank-eyed happiness.
Suspicious eyes peered through an ornate oval window, watching every moment of Narantha Crownsilver’s disappearance back inside her waiting carriage. As that conveyance rumbled away over the cobbles, the watcher sighed, turned from the window, went to a room hung with tapestries and lit by a lone lantern, and carefully cast a spell.
The palm of his left hand tingled and glowed-then he seemed to be holding the moving, talking face of a woman in it.
“Yes, Nardryn? What befalls?”
Nardryn Tamlast was a careful, conservative man. To last more than a month, any house wizard of the Erduskings would have to be.
“Laspeera, some misgivings have arisen here.”
“Yours alone? Or are the Erduskings party to them?”
“Mine.” Tamlast was a middle-aged man with a forgettable face, who had never had much coin to call his own. He was as sparing with words as with the spending of his wealth. “You’re aware of Lady Narantha Crownsilver’s tour of suitable nobles, I’m sure. She’s just departed here. I do not believe she found the younger Lord Erdusking to her liking-but I also fail to believe she is truly seeking a mate. She’s not quite the skilled actress she thinks she is.”
“She’d not have to be, to cozen young Malasko-or most of his ilk, for that matter. Yet I agree with you. Her public reason for visiting all of these young noblemen is so much piffle. Did you observe anything of their meeting?”
“No, Lady. Such things are not done in this house.” Something that might have been the long-dead ghost of a smile rose briefly to the vicinity of Tamlast’s lips, ere vanishing without a trace. “Not with all the spell-shields and trap-magics the Erduskings collect so enthusiastically and apply so lavishly. They think themselves of vital importance to the realm-and important folk deal in many secrets.”
“Of course,” Laspeera agreed dryly. “So you believe we war wizards should-”
“Lady, please. I’d not waste your time just to send needless advice. I uncovered something specific that should be of great interest to you.”
“I’m sorry, Nardryn. What is it?”
“I made so bold as to probe at Lady Crownsilver’s mind, upon her arrival. She’s protected, of course, by something that seemed to respond to my spells as if it could think-though the lady cast no spells of her own, that I observed. Yet before it walled me out, I learned this much: the lady believes she’s carrying out some sort of secret mission for the king.”
The face in Tamlast’s palm cursed, uttering the most fearsome words in a whisper.
Tamlast quirked an eyebrow. “Is this reaction due to a fear you’ve uncovered treason? Or some private stratagem of the king’s? Or the hand of the royal magician at work?”
“Yes,” Laspeera replied, in an even drier voice-and winked into nothingess, leaving the house wizard staring thoughtfully at his empty palm.