"There's a woman named Tabaea who has just declared herself Empress of Ethshar, and she's raised an army of the poor and discontented from the Wall Street Field. They're marching here to take the palace and kill the overlord." Alorria stepped back, to give the commander of the city guard room to stand.
"From the Field?" Lord Torrut said, astonished; he stopped with one arm in its sleeve and the other bare. "You don't need me for that! A hundred men and a magician or two should be able to handle it."
Alorria shook her head. "Tabaea's a magician-a very powerful one, the one that Lady Sarai's been looking for for months, the one who's been murdering other magicians."
"Well, but surely…"
"The magicians are trying to stop her, and Captain Tikri's getting the palace guard ready to defend against her, but so far nothing's working. She's already walked right through a squadron of guards, out on Wall Street; she crippled a warlock and brushed aside the wizards' spells as if they were mere illusions."
Torrut stared at her for a moment, then turned to his door guard. "Is this true?" he demanded.
The guard turned up an empty palm. "I don't know, my lord," he said. "This woman was sent by Lady Sarai and Captain Tikri, but that's all I know."
"Damn." Torrut slid his arm into the empty sleeve and then reached for his kilt. "Who are you, young woman? Why wasn't one of the regular messengers sent?"
"My husband's a wizard," Alorria explained. "Everyone else was busy, and I wanted to help, so they sent me to fetch you."
Torrut nodded. "Good of you. Listen, I want you to take this soldier to vouch for you and go wake the overlord. I don't know what's going on here, or how much danger there really is, but I'm not about to let anyone say I didn't do my best to protect Ederd. While you do that, I'll go down and see what's happening for myself."
"Wake the overlord?" Alorria squeaked. Even though she was the daughter of a king herself, she lived in awe of the three Ethsharitic overlords. Beside her the guardsman looked very unhappy indeed.
"That's right," Torrut said, standing up and pulling his kilt into position. "Somebody better." He smiled, "Don't worry, Ederd's a gentle old man; he won't have your heads lopped off for disturbing him. For that matter, despite his age, he doesn't mind looking at a lovely young woman any more than I do. All this fuss may be nothing, but I think Ederd would want to know." He reached for his sword belt. "Now, go on, both of you!"
They went.
When Alorria had come up to the level where most of the higher nobility had their apartments, the stairways and passages had been quiet and dim; now, though, she could hear voices and running footsteps and could see lights behind a dozen doors. "Which way?" she asked.
The guard pointed.
Officials were hurrying about; Alorria knew that the magicians were gathering two flights below, to prepare a defense against Tabaea's advance, and to find a way to kill the mysterious self-proclaimed "empress."
And out in the streets, Tabaea was marching steadily closer. Once Tabaea was out of the Wall Street Field, she got as far as the intersection of Gate Street and Wizard Street before she encountered any further organized resistance. There, though, she found herself facing a living barricade of soldiers, swords drawn, formed up in a line three deep that stretched from one side of the avenue to the other.
"Are you trying to keep me from the palace? From my palace?" she shouted.
The lieutenant in charge of the formation called back, "Drop your weapons, all of you! I call on you in the name of Ederd the Fourth, Overlord of Ethshar, to surrender!"
Tabaea laughed. "I could just go around the block," she called, "but I think I'll teach you all a lesson." With the Black Dagger ready in her hand, she marched forward. The line of soldiery braced to meet her. When she came within striking distance, the soldier directly in front of her called out, "Stop, or I'll kill you!" He raised his sword high.
"Go ahead and try!" Tabaea called back, without stopping. The man stabbed at her; catlike, she dodged the thrust. Her hand flicked out, like a cat's paw at a mouse, and closed around the sword's blade.
Startled, the soldier tried to snatch it back, but Tabaea tore the weapon out of his hand and flung it aside.
The soldiers to either side were striking at her, as well, now; she ducked and wove, dodging their blows. She snatched the swords away from two more soldiers. The line formation had broken, now; they were all coming to get at her, forming a tight little knot around her.
She smacked away swords, dodged their thrusts, grabbed one in her fist, and bent it until it broke; behind her she could hear her ragtag army muttering, brushing up against the soldiers, but not really fighting.
It didn't matter. She didn't need them.
A sword hit her squarely in the side, and she felt an instant of incredible pain, but then it was gone; she had lost another life.
Angry, she lashed out with the Black Dagger and sliced open a soldier's throat. As he started to fall back she finished him with a thrust to the heart; she wanted a life to replace the one she had lost.
She picked up another guardsman and threw him against his companions; then another, and another. She used her hands and her warlockry both.
"You can't stop me!" she shrieked. "No one can stop me!"
The Black Dagger flared blue, and something crackled like dead leaves in a hot fire. Someone was trying to use magic against her.
"No one!" she repeated, "not even wizards!"
The dagger flared again, greenish this time. Tabaea jabbed it into a soldier's belly.
A moment later the guard broke; several men fell back under the lieutenant's orders, but others ran off down side streets, either Wizard Street or Arena Street, and a few ducked into the Cap and Dagger.
And of course, half a dozen or so lay unmoving on the ground.
"All right, men," the lieutenant shouted. "She won't make it easy, we'll leave this one to the wizards!"
"Run away!" Tabaea called. "Look at them, you people, look at them run! Send your wizards, I don't care! They can't stop me!" She waved the dagger in the air, and a cheer went up from her "army."
"Come on!" she called, and again she marched toward the palace.
At the palace, the more ordinary officials and workers listened closely as the magicians reported on the encounter.
"Bad," Karanissa said, "very bad. Three dead, at least. All on our side."
"She's still coming?" Lady Sarai asked.
"Oh, yes; the fight hardly even slowed her down."
"What if we let her pass, but stopped her army?" The question was directed at the entire room, rather than at Karanissa.
"We could," Okko agreed, "but what would that accomplish, if we can't stop her?"
"Well, she couldn't very well rule the city all by herself, could she?"
"No," Okko agreed, "but I think she could kill everyone here, one by one, starting with the overlord himself, until the survivors started obeying her."
"Would she do that?" one of the overlord's scriveners asked, horrified.
"Yes," Teneria said flatly. "She would."
Sarai turned to the wizards. "What spells have you tried against her?"
"Several," Tobas said. "From simple curses to the White Death. Whatever is protecting her blocks them all instantly."
"Is there any way to stop her?" Lady Sarai asked.
"Probably," Tobas replied, "and we'll keep trying spells. But most of them would take more time than we have to prepare. And some of them would take out large parts of the city with her."