“I don’t think so. He didn’t ask for her by name. He just told the guard I needed a maid.”
“I begin to see why you found this so interesting,” commented Master Eremis. He seemed to be laughing to himself. “Trivial matters always interest men who fail at everything else.”
“Terisa” – now Geraden’s tone cast hints of authority, as if he stood taller under the weight of the Master’s derision – “do you remember what we talked about after the first time Gart tried to kill you?”
Dumbly, she shook her head. She couldn’t think. That memory was gone, as blank as the previous one was distinct. The dim gray light from the windows appeared to be failing.
“We talked about how he found you.”
How he found me.
“It was obvious that he had an ally in Orison. Somebody must have told him where you were.”
“That is very good, Geraden,” Master Eremis sneered. “A prodigious display of reasoning. Somebody must indeed have told him. Perhaps it was you. You knew where she was. I have heard that her room was guarded at your request.”
Terisa didn’t look away from Geraden.
He met her gaze to the exclusion of everything else. “Saddith didn’t tell me as much as I wanted. But she told me enough so I can guess the rest. She volunteered to be your maid.”
Volunteered?
“I wondered about that. Why would she volunteer, when the only people who knew you were here – and knew you were important – were King Joyse and the Masters? With a little prodding, she told me. She did it to please one of her lovers. Or rather someone she wanted for a lover. One of the Masters. He asked her to take care of you for his sake, and she did it to make him grateful.”
A log fell in the hearth; flames spurted higher. Gently, Master Eremis wrapped his long fingers around the back of Terisa’s neck.
“That’s also how he found out about the secret passage to your room,” Geraden went on. “From her. She could hardly help noticing you kept a chair in your wardrobe.”
“This is outrageous, boy.” The Master’s grip on the back of Terisa’s neck tightened. “Have you lost your mind? Do you seriously mean to accuse me – me! – of being in league with the High King’s Monomach?” Beneath his scorn ran an undercurrent of mirth.
Still Geraden kept his hard gaze on Terisa, away from Master Eremis. “He’s one of the few people who knew where you were that first night. He’s one of the few who know about that secret passage. And he’s the only one who could have set up that ambush for you after the lords met Prince Kragen. He’s the only one who knew you would be there. He took you.
“He put you right in front of the champion so you might get shot. You were together – but he escaped. He could have taken you with him. He could have stopped me. Why didn’t he?”
The fires seemed to be dying. The suite was filling up with gloom.
Geraden, help me. He’s going to break my neck.
“Geraden,” said the Master casually, “this is inexcusable. You have gone beyond insult.” The pressure of his fingers began to make Terisa light-headed. “You cannot place the blame for your own crimes on my shoulders. I will not carry it.”
Geraden shifted his glare to Eremis.
“All of this is silly supposition except the question of Gart’s attempt on her life after the meeting of the Lords. And that you could have arranged as well as I. Your brother Artagel was following her. You knew at all times where she was. It is only good fortune that Gart did not come upon all the lords together. Some of them would surely have died.”
“Let her go,” the Apt said in a voice like a piece of granite. “If you have to have a hostage, take me. I’m a lot more dangerous than she is.”
At that, Master Eremis laughed like a splash of acid. “Oh, you flatter yourself, boy. You flatter yourself.”
Before she could try to twist free, she heard the sound of someone thrashing his way through clothes. In a sudden flurry, her wardrobe disgorged most of its contents, and a man burst out from the hidden passage.
His cloak and leather armor were so black that he seemed like an incarnation of the darkness behind him; he moved like a shadow. But the long steel of his sword caught reflections of fire and scattered them in front of him. His nose jutted between his yellow eyes like the blade of a hatchet.
He sprang into the room, coiled for bloodshed.
Nevertheless he was unmistakably surprised to find Master Eremis, Terisa, and Geraden all in front of him. Despite himself, he checked his attack. The aim of his sword wavered.
“Gart!” Master Eremis shouted. “Whelp of a dog! Your timing is miraculous!”
So quickly that his movement staggered her, he released Terisa and bounded to the bed. While Gart swung into motion, Master Eremis snatched down the peacock-feather canopy and flung it over Gart’s head.
At the same moment, Geraden grabbed Terisa and jerked her away, thrust her into the sitting room behind him. She stumbled toward the fire, barely caught her balance.
With a wet sound like water on hot iron, Gart’s sword swept the canopy to shreds. Feathers settled to the floor on all sides: their eyes watched everything.
Master Eremis jumped up onto the bed.
As he faced the Monomach, firelight glared across his features. The red flash gave him a look of almost ghoulish glee as he pitched a pillow at Gart.
Snarling, Gart separated the pillowcase from its stuffing with the tip of his sword so fiercely that the pillow appeared to explode. Feathers billowed toward the ceiling and came snowing down on him.
Instantly, a second pillow followed the first.
This one, however, he caught on the flat of his blade. Swinging his longsword like a bat, he sent the pillow back at Master Eremis.
It hit him in the chest hard enough to knock him against the wall.
Gart turned on Geraden and Terisa.
“Guards!” roared Master Eremis before the High King’s Monomach could strike. “Guards!”
For the second time, Gart was startled enough to hesitate. He stopped the driving swing which had carried him into the sitting room – the swing which would have carried Geraden’s head from his body. Swiftly, the Monomach gauged the distance past Geraden to Terisa; he looked at the door as the latch lifted; he glanced over his shoulder at Eremis.
With his left hand, he reached to his belt and produced a keen iron dirk.
As the door pounded open and the first guard started into the room, Gart cocked his arm.
A third pillow thumped against his shoulder and spoiled his aim. He missed Terisa.
Master Eremis let out a cackle of laughter.
Now the Monomach had no time for hesitation. Cursing vehemently, he met the first guard’s blow with his sword, then kicked the man’s legs out from under him. While the second struggled to avoid trampling his comrade, Gart retreated into the bedroom.
Without a glance at Master Eremis, he dove into the wardrobe.
“After him!” Eremis yelled at the guards. “That passage leads to Havelock’s chambers! Go! I will summon reinforcements!”
Terisa saw the guards falter distinctly before they plunged into the wardrobe. Perhaps they didn’t want to face the High King’s Monomach in a narrow place. Or perhaps they were reluctant to intrude on Adept Havelock’s private domain – especially if, as Master Eremis seemed to suggest, the Adept were in league with Gart.
With a bouncing stride, Master Eremis left the bed and came into the sitting room. The glow of the fire and his own mirth lit his face, but Terisa thought he had never looked more dangerous. Briskly, he approached Geraden and stabbed a finger at the Apt’s chest.
“I intend to call a meeting of the Congery.” Despite his humorous expression, his tone was savage. “You will answer me for this in front of the Masters, boy.”
“No, I won’t,” Geraden replied unsteadily. “They’ve disbanded themselves.”